Clouded Eyes
by TrinaFlint
Summary: PreciousMetal. Something in Gold's eyes is hindering it from its former glory, so his vision is different from others. But the cloud in his eyes isn't completely a bad thing. Warning: Boyxboy.
1. Prologue

Prologue

* * *

His eyes.

A short sentence that describes it all: They're not normal.

His eyes; they are clouded. From the former majestic glow of pure gold, to a lustrous, but comparatively dull amber.

From the wonderful senses felt from its ability, to the restricted rubbish.

His vision is normal from an outsider's view. Because his eyes can tell if something is pretty, or something is of a certain colour, or of a shape. The message is simply delivered to the brain.

But he cannot see beauty for beauty.

He does not know what colour really is.

And he cannot see any superficial shapes.

He can never appreciate things for what they really look like.

He is practically blind. But better.

He cannot see the exterior, but he can see the interior.

Sometimes, he would be confused to what he was seeing, because he would wield the ability unknowingly.

At other times, it's the same dull thing. Simply pieces of information sent to his head.

He thought this was how people saw things.

He wondered why people could grasp physical things so well. He thought it was almost stupid.

But he didn't know that he would never see things like others did. Even without the cloud in his eyes.

Because without the cloud in his eyes, his vision is stronger. Much stronger.

He could see the surfaces of everything crystal clear, like a normal person.

But he could also see what people are under the surface if he tried. Perhaps a person who's grieving would appear to be crying to him when they are not.

That's not all.

He could look into a person's particulars, like one's age, one' birthday, even one's deathday, which would only change when intercepted with the supernatural.

He could know a person's love, and if a person had guilt.

And even more.

His eyes would suck out energy from its surroundings. Including living creatures.

His eyes could cause a huge area to explode. Maybe a city if he put in a bit of effort. Possibly even a whole region.

It would be devastating.

That was why the cloud existed in his eyes. And it would stay there, the power of his eyes locked forever.

Until another one of his kind removes it.

* * *

**(A/N)** I know its really short. But it's the prologue, so :P

Tell me what you think of this! Also don't expect regular updates. School :(

I don't have very much to go with this story. So if you have ideas so far, tell me and I might use them. I'll give you credit too.

Also it's my first chaptered fic here so :/ and thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 1

Gold woke up in a daze, feeling a bit woozy.

There was a huge pounding at the back his head, like it had been struck by a metal pole. Maybe it did...

Looking around, he saw that he was in a plain, one that seemed to stretch out with no end, littered with a few trees. The sun was low in the sky, deeming the day as evening.

There weren't any people nearby, and he wondered how he'd even got here.

All he remembered about it was that he was all alone, in his room, and he suddenly... blank.

He did recall something now; for the past few days, he had seen a strange shadow that always seems to be around him... or at least that was what his eyes were telling him. He ignored it, thinking it was one of those times when he suddenly saw weird things on people, but maybe it hadn't been the right choice.

Suddenly, he heard the dull thud of footsteps, crunching the grass below it lightly. Gold grew more an more paranoid as it became louder and he turned around, noticing a figure of a man slowly approaching him.

"Oh you're awake! You okay?"

The man was around his late 30s maybe, and he was smiling at him.

"Hello," he said in a cheery voice. "Sorry if I hit you a little too hard."

He walked around him for a moment. "I haven't seen you in a long while... How have you been, Gold?"

Gold jerked up again. "How do you know my name?" he asked, a little suspiciously.

The man laughed. "That's kind of rude, you know. At least say hi. People can know your name by a lot of ways. But for me, we don't need to know yet."

Gold felt like the guy was being mysterious on purpose.

"Wait," he asked, "Why am I here? Why did you bring me here?"

The man shook his head and looked at Gold seriously. "Do you know why people can always seem to see things you can't understand?"

Gold fazed out for a bit before realising what the man was hinting at.

"You know that about me too," he remarked sharply.

"Yes," said the man a little impatiently. "Now listen. I used to be like that too. You can't see things others can usually see-"

"Oh, _I know_, you're one of those people that mock me because I can't understand _simple_ things," Gold cut in curtly. "Well, I can't. So what? It's not my fault!"

The man looked like he was about to erupt.

"Now listen here-" he suddenly calmed himself down before anything else. "Look, Gold, I know how you feel. I was like that too. It's not your fault, not at all."

He took a deep breath. "We can't see things others can, but they can't see things we can. Have you ever noticed you sometimes see a person bleeding when they are not?"

Gold widened his eyes and he nodded.

"That's their inner soul. What they actually are, how they actually feel," the man continued, smiling. "For example, the person bleeding might be wounded emotionally, traumatized, and normal people can't see that."

Gold had a skeptical look painted onto his face.

The man sighed but continued. "So you see, we're not exactly abnormal, we're special. Our eyes have much more powers than normal people. We not only see people for their inner soul and their superficial appearance, but also, for some reason, we can see the details. Like when they are born, when they are going to die, and we can even see if they have guilt in their souls."

"No offence, but you sound a lot like you have a delusional disorder," snorted Gold.

The man looked at him, his head tilted, sighing, but more of in a proud way than in a disappointed way.

"You have the pride, Gold," he stated. "You have the attitude. And of course, the looks..."

Gold involuntarily straightened up when he heard these words of praise.

"The pride, alright," muttered the man.

"Wait," asked Gold, "If I could really do all that mumbo jumbo, why couldn't I? _I_ didn't."

"You see, from young, you have something in your eyes, called the cloud. So you can't even see things properly. Just like I did."

"You still sound delusional," Gold snorted again.

The man shook his head. "I can prove to you I can do what I claim. ...You have a lost expression on your face. And your face is full of life, which sort of contradicts the point. ...I get it. You want to live life to the best but you have no idea what your true purpose is..."

Gold lifted an eyebrow.

"Also, you're born on the 21st of July. Quite a rip off since I know that already... You can't see death days of people of our kind... And your love... Ah, this would be interesting..."

Gold didn't exactly panic because he didn't love anyone in general. Then again, thinking deeply, maybe he was in love...with... Someone?

"Okay, so who's the lucky girl? Hm..."

Gold was wondering too, so he didn't stop the man.

"Let's see... Hm. She's pretty thin, I guess. Not skinny, but thin."

Gold didn't actually know anyone who was fat. Not friends, anyway. He felt that it was kind of biased... Or people around him were all thin. Which makes him sound even more biased.

"Hm, delicate features... I can tell so far..."

Blank blank blank... Gold just wanted to know...

"...her skin is quite light in colour... Oh, and she has red hair."

Since when did Gold know any girls with red hair?! Hm, let's see, Blue has brown hair, Yellow's blonde, Crystal's is blue...

"She has really pretty silver eyes..."

Silver's... Wait, since when did he come into the list?

"So...am I accurate so far?" asked the man, although looking at Gold's expression he knew he was thinking.

Wait a second... Silver has silver eyes, red hair, pale skin, and he's pretty thin... What?! He was in love with Silver?! Was there some kind of mistake?!

"So...?" the man gently prompted.

"HE'S A GUY!" Gold bellowed the next moment, throwing the man quite off guard.

"W-wait, whut? A...guy?!" the man stuttered.

"YES! He's my best friend Silver. Well I don't know whether he treats me as a best friend but he's one of my closest friends. BUT I DON'T LOVE HIM!"

"Really?" The man looked at him with an eyebrow raised, just like how Gold did before. "I don't think your brain lies..."

"You're freaking _delusional_," Gold repeated angrily.

The man sighed again, this time in frustration. "I don't expect you to believe me right away," he started. "But...you know what, I can remove the cloud from you right now. Makes life so much easier."

"Fine," huffed Gold.

"Okay. This is gonna hurt..."

The next split second, Gold was groaning loudly in pain, grabbing his eyes to rid them of the extraordinary painful stinging in his eyes. It felt like daggers were pulled in and out of his eyeballs and every second that passed, the pain increased and his groans turned into yells, and the yells became louder and louder.

Slowly, but surely, the pain started to fade. Gold felt a peaceful wind blow past him and was at ease, comparatively, but his eyes still stung quite painfully, and he was afraid to open them.

"Don't be afraid, Gold, just open your eyes."

Gold hesitated for a moment.

"Go on."

Gold took the plunge and Opened them. And wow, wow, he didn't regret it.

Confusion first hit him: What? What is this? What am I actually seeing? Is this...vision?

It was, and Gold was in utter shock and awe. The man saw it in his face and smiled.

He saw it all. "This is the colour green..." he muttered, pointing to the grass. "It's beautiful..."

Looking all around him, he took in the colour of the pastel blue of the vast sky, the wooden brown of the tree trunks, every shape, every single detail he hadn't been able to see before. The angle at which the branches of the trees were positioned at, the leaves and grass with the light clearly reflected on the surface, all the puffs of the clouds...

He was even amazed at how the shades of green differed, so this was "darker", and this was "lighter".

Looking at the man himself, Gold realised even more details of him. The edges of his face, the eye shape, the short nose, the way the fabric on his clothes flapped in the light wind... And wow, this was how it looked like when people moved. His eyes would twitch up, the corner of his lips would curl up; so this was what a smile really looked like.

So this was what it meant to see. To have vision.

It was wonderful, and Gold wanted to take all of it in.

He looked at the man. "Can I... Go around the area?"

"Go on," he replied, smiling.

Gold began to wander slowly, almost out of his view.

I told you, the man thought, smirking, almost as if there was a person in his mind. I told you. See how happy he is to be able to see? This is the happiness everyone of our kind deserves. Which is my purpose.

He pictured the strict and make-up caked face of the woman scowling at him, unable to retort. He laughed. Not that that had ever happened. She would always have a witty comeback, and the man almost suspected that she wrote comebacks in her free time. While reapplying make-up.

He laughed again.

The man headed towards the direction Gold went and after quite a bit of walking, he started to find a few Pokémon scurrying among the grass. Wow, Gold must've travelled quite far ahead already.

Or... Did he overshoot?!

* * *

Gold was just too overwhelmed by everything and it all still floated around his head.

So in that short span of time that day, he was knocked out, brought to a place he didn't know where, and... Instead of harming him further, the man gave him true vision?

It happened so fast, it just whizzed by his mind like a dream, and Gold was wondering whether or not was he really in a good dream. But even if it was, he wasn't going to question anything. It was all too beautiful to miss.

Gold was dizzy with happiness. Dropping to the floor, he closed his eyes, afraid that if he used them for too long at once, everything would be gone.

Opening his eyes, he saw something brown scurrying in the grass. Hesitantly, he poked it, and the brown creature came up to him and faced him. It was a Zigzagoon.

Gold turned his attention to the fur. It seemed spiky, but so soft at the same time, and of a vivid brown mixed with white.

Closing his eyes, he ruffled the Zigzagoon's fur, before opening them again and looking into the innocent eyes that was staring at him.

Gold suddenly felt a sucking force - but it was such that he was the one who was draining - and a massive sense of power spread through his body, also blurring his vision out of focus. It was supposedly amazing to hold such power, but Gold didn't feel powerful. He was scared. Helpless.

The energy stopped sucking in and Gold regained focus. Feeling fake-happy, thus uncomfortable, he looked at the Zigzagoon, which was lying on the grass, unmoving. Gold's battle instinct told him that the Zigzagoon had fainted, but something told him it was far worse, far more irreplaceable than that.

What had he done?

* * *

"Gold!"

The man was getting anxious and at last he had caught sight of Gold sitting on the ground.

Gold had not seemed to react and so the man called out his name another time, nearer now. "Gold!"

The man knew that Gold obviously could've heard him from the short distance and he sensed danger. He hurried over to face him. "Gold?..."

He saw the Pokémon lying peacefully on the grass, but also unmoving, and the stunned expression on Gold's face.

Oh no...

He slapped his forehead. "Argh... How could've I completely..."

Only then was that Gold started acknowledging the man's presence and looked up at him with watery eyes. "...The... The Zigzagoon... It's...only fainted, right?" he asked fearfully.

The man bit his lip. "Um... No..."

They sat there in an awkward silence.

"I killed it, didn't I?" croaked Gold.

The man saw no other option and nodded his head.

"You see, our eyes have this ability to drain life energy via eyes, so you've just effectively k- did that to that Zigzagoon," he explained.

There was an even more awkward silence after that. "I killed it," muttered Gold, and he started to weep. "I freaking killed it... It was innocent..."

The area was filled with his weeping sounds.

"So wait," Gold whispered. "I get to have vision... But end up killing every single living thing on this planet?!"

"Well, no," said the man. "Okay, um, you can affect plants too, just that it takes a bit more complicated than the default which is to drain life energy of beings like Pokemon and humans."

"I don't wanna learn how to do it to plants," muttered Gold.

"It is a crucial skill, because there are cases where you need to drain energy and you have to do it to plants," sighed the man. "When charged your eyes can do powerful things, you know."

"So how do you end up not killing everyone?" asked Gold defeatedly.

"Well we usually live away from other humans," the man stated.

"Are you saying that I have to live away from all my friends?!"

"No no no, it's completely your choice," the man assured hurriedly to the frantic boy.

"...Okay... But I'll end up hurting everyone, right? Or I have to cover my eyes with black paper or something..."

"Actually, you can restrain the draining power of your eyes," the man explained. "Just try not to look at a person's eyes, first thing, but if needed you can just... Well just have the feeling to hold it back, it's honestly not that hard."

Gold looked at him confusedly. The man sighed.

"Okay, basically, when you look at a human, for example, your eyes' first instinct is to suck the energy out of the being. So just like a normal impulse, you have to restrain it. It's quite easy. And it does get easier with practice. You can try it on me."

Gold took some time to take this in. "Wait, what? Practice on you?"

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm a trained... trainer," said the man, sitting down. "Now, just look at me in the eyes."

But Gold was scared of doing so.

"Come on, it's okay. I am trained against situations like this."

Gold looked at the man in the eyes. He immediately felt the sucking force of his eyes and quickly closed them again.

"Seriously, it's okay," grumbled the man irritatingly.

Gold opened his eyes again and the sucking force came back.

"Now... Just control the sucking force. Slow it down, and slowly make it stop..."

Gold tried. It wasn't really that hard at all, and he felt the force weaken to a much more bearable suction.

"Relax," ordered the man. Gold closed his eyes and drooped his head, all too willingly, panting slightly.

The man smiled. "That wasn't bad for a first timer," he commented.

Gold looked up and smiled. Then he frowned again. "Wait, why don't I usually feel any suction when I look into your eyes?" he asked. "Only sometimes I do. Like just now."

"Well, there's the defence barrier people of our kind practice to protect ourselves, he explained. "But it would take a bit of getting used to the eye power to learn the defence."

Gold nodded.

"Try again?" the man asked, smiling. Gold smiled just as widely and nodded again, and he attempted this a few more times, each time getting slightly better and better. Hearing the man's encouragement every time, Gold felt a warmness inside him. He hadn't felt this free for a long time. It was such a nice warmness, something that was extremely rare and therefore precious to him.

"That's enough for today, you've had enough shock for one day," the man said, smiling at Gold . "Kay," replied Gold as he stood up, panting harder now.

"It's slightly challenging at first but it will get easier, I promise."

Gold had a determined look on his face. "Okay."

"Take care of yourself!" the man called out as Gold grabbed Totaro by his tufty foot and they flew away into the distant sky.

* * *

Reaching New Bark Town, he thought of the human beings that were suddenly huge in number in his head, and he shied away from everyone else.

He was trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone, which was pretty hard since he was constantly looking around cautiously for anyone that might come near him.

He was taking a step back when he suddenly felt the air behind him get warmer. Hastily, he stepped forward. He turned to face where his back was originally facing.

He ended up looking at a person's back, which was agreeable better than a person's front. It was a really familiar back...

Nevertheless, Gold ran to a corner to hide himself, counting himself lucky that time.

The person did a 90 degree turn and Gold immediately recognised her... Crystal. Gold was in a position such that Crystal couldn't see him but he could see her face and... Gold saw how Crystal really looked like.

He had never noticed this before. His mind clearly recognised the teenage girl as Crystal, but he hadn't known how she actually looked like until now.

According to his previously clouded eyes, she hadn't registered as pretty. But now, Gold could see the very shapes of her eyes, her nose, her face-frame, and all these little details did make her really, really pretty...

He went out of his hiding place for a moment just to take a closer look at her, but at that time Crystal turned around even more. "Hey Gold!" she said, smiling. "I was getting a bit worried for you!"

Her eyes were making contact with Gold's and his immediate reaction was to look down. At the same time, he felt embarrassed. What did Crystal think? Perhaps not going straight for her and yelling out a loud "hi" would make her suspicious?

"Hey Gold, you okay?" she asked, going closer to him.

"You're really pretty," Gold blurted out dumbly. Suddenly realising what he had done - complimenting Crystal like that - which was not how he usually acted at all, his eyes widened, and he ran away from her, blushing madly.

Crystal was as equally flabbergasted.

* * *

When Gold arrived at home, he zoomed past his mother (leaving her sighing after him), ran to his bedroom at slammed the door shut, plopped onto the bed, red as beetroot, confused as hell.

In the midst of his confusion, he fell into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

**(A/N)** ONE WHOLE FREAKING MONTH! I think I may have lost a few readers... Oh well... Who cares. They get to miss an awesome story ;D

Enough with the self praise, now I need to explain that I really have a lot of homework. I'm freaking out over the essay test for tomorrow. I'm not that good at that kind of writing.

And by the way, this story may go up in rating to T. But no explicit scenes.

Ending the author's note...

Peace!


	3. Chapter 2

**(A/N)** Blue is the girl and Green is the boy.

* * *

"Everyone here?"

"Well, Gold's not."

It was just a little meeting between the Kanto and Johto Pokédex owners; including Professor Oak and Professor Elm.

Gold wasn't at the lab yet, and Professor Oak was getting impatient.

"Alright! Let's just start the meeting without him!" announced Prof. Oak, with a bit of annoyance.

"W-what? Why?" asked Yellow, a bit anxiously. "Don't we need all of us here? Isn't it quite important?"

"Well... It isn't that important..."

"Sh-should I go g-get him, Professor?" asked Crystal. She was already half out of her chair.

"No need, Crys," said Prof. Oak, smiling.

"K-kay..." she replied, more shakily, and she sat down.

"Hey Crys, you okay?" asked Red in concern. "You seem a bit unnerved."

"Yeah, after we started to mention Gold," snickered Blue jokingly, but after seeing Crystal's reaction - uncomfortable shifting - Blue started to get a bit curious as well.

"Hm? What happened, Crys?" asked Prof. Oak.

"Well..." Crystal's gaze swept around the room uneasily.

"So...?" asked Blue.

"Um... Okay, so yesterday, I was in New Bark Town, and... Well, I suddenly saw him, and... He suddenly told me I was pretty then his face went red then he ran away."

There was a bit of silence before Blue broke it.

"I totally called for it!" she yelled in triumph.

"What?" was Crystal's reaction, narrowing her eyes.

"I totally called for it, from day 1! Crys, Gold's in love with you!" she cried.

"Do you really need to point that out," Crystal asked darkly.

"...No offence, Crystal, but it was quite obvious from the start that you two would be... Um... _Romantically involved at some point..._" Green pointed out.

Crystal blushed. "No! Problem is, I don't feel anything for him at all! Now that he might really like me, do you know how awkward things can get? Silver, you support me in this right?"

"Mmph," Silver grunted in vague agreement.

"Yeah! See?!"

Prof. Elm shook his head. "I really think this is going to end up with you two together. Now, this aside, let's get down to the meeting."

Everyone focused on Prof. Oak as he began speaking.

"Now, if you haven't heard, there seems to be a "Team Rocket" forming somewhere around here," he started off.

"Their aims are quite unknown yet, although we have tried to investigate; it's definitely not Jirachi, we know for sure. No Legendary Pokémon reasons, but the reason we do not know, is probably because they are being quite subtle. High chance of it being a terrorist group, although that isn't very smart... And also, they don't seem to have much preparations. Their plans are pretty mysterious...

"But let's all make sure that we are not taken by surprise when it hits. Be ready, okay?"

* * *

Gold woke up to the sound of voices downstairs in his house.

"Hm, this place has changed quite a lot..." said a stranger's voice.

"Well, I'm sorry but I don't know if you even knew how it used to look like..." It was Gold's mother's familiar voice, but a little skeptical sounding.

"Well I do, in fact."

Gold got out of his bed and splashed his face with water before heading to the ground floor. He saw the face he recognised: his mother's, although now with the unusual frown, and another unfamiliar face, the one who most likely had the voice he heard when he woke up. The person was a she: average build for a woman in her young 30s. Gold didn't find anything particularly unusual about her, other than the fact that she was a complete stranger and in his house.

The woman turned towards him. "Ah, there we are. Hello, Gold," she greeted with a hint of warmness. The woman stepped forward and Gold's mother instinctively tensed up, as if the woman was going to lunge at her son.

"Relax, Gold's mother, I won't harm your child," the woman said nonchalantly. She turned to Gold. "I just need to talk to you for a while," she said, smiling.

Gold had the urge to face her mum but he couldn't risk the chance of... Doing that to anybody, let alone his own mother. That was when he realised, the mystery woman had bright golden eyes as well...

"Wait," said Gold's mother. "I keep on having his feeling that I'd seen you before."

"You have," the woman stated bluntly. "But rest assured I'm not significant enough in your life for you to remember me, and I didn't harm any of you."

Gold's mother nodded and looked toward's Gold's side, signalling an okay. Gold wanted to shy away so that their eyes won't accidentally meet, and the woman seemed to understand, purposely walking in between him and his mother. "Why don't we talk at somewhere private?" asked the woman.

Gold mumbled something incoherent under his breath and walked back to his bedroom.

"Follow me, then," he muttered.

The woman looked at Gold's mother and she nodded politely, following the boy up the stairs.

* * *

Gold made himself comfortable on the bed and the woman settled herself on a chair at the edge of the room.

"...so?" asked Gold carefully.

"Hello," she said again. "Hm, you've met my friend, have you?"

Gold looked at her with confusion.

"You know, the guy who you met yesterday? The one who told you about your powers," the woman tried to prompt his memory.

"..um, yeah," Gold replied blankly.

"Gold, I know this is a bit hard for you to believe, but-"

"I believe it's true, I've experienced it first hand," interrupted Gold. "But I can't really take it in in just a day. I need time, you know?"

"Yeah," the woman sighed. "It's hard to comprehend the first time. Same for me."

"So you really are...?"

"Yeah, I'm one of you," said the woman. "And I need to explain something. You see, being special we have to keep us as secret as possible. Because of many reasons, really. One of them is people may hunt us down and kill us for being abnormal and suspect us to be demons of some sort."

Gold nodded slowly.

"You may tell some very, very close friends about you, and make sure they don't tell anyone about it. That's one important thing."

Gold nodded slowly again.

The woman smirked slightly "...So, I've heard that you have the hots for...a _boy_?"

Gold jumped up and turned red in the cheeks, gesturing a "no" with a flustered expression. The woman just smirked even more.

"I am not in love with him!" Gold yelled. "He's a piece of um...depressed..."

"You fail at denial," said the woman, shaking her head. "And, um, why call him depressed?"

"Because he's weird," Gold sputtered out, but at that time thought of Giovanni's terminal illness and how he finally succumbed to it. He had already been sick before Silver knew he was his father.

Of course Silver would be depressed. His father was currently 6 feet underground, cold and unmoving. And Giovanni was his only family.

Gold felt a twang of guilt spread slowly in his body.

"...alright then," said the woman. "I bet he's pretty."

Gold's cheeks reddened even more. "No no no no no! He is not pretty! I mean he's slim and had delicate facial features and long hair and feminine face shape and especially long lashes but no he is not pretty. He is a guy. Full stop." Gold took in a deep breath.

"Very precise description of how pretty the person you don't think is pretty, is," the woman commented.

"No no no no no!" Gold denied further.

"Think about it," said the woman, and for a while she looked at him intently. "He's pretty. I can see it."

"Argh!" yelled Gold.

The woman laughed. "Okay... Moving on... The guy from yesterday told you about your eyes' energy-sucking power right?"

Gold nodded, shuddereing internally from the Zigzagoon incident.

"Reminder that you will have to be more self-conscious of your eyes now," she warned.

"I know, definitely," Gold replied immediately.

"...okay, so, I will check on you sometimes. Not me all the time, but one of us will visit you regularly. Hopefully not _those_ ones though..." she trailed off.

She cleared her throat. "Anyway, just in case you need to call me by anything, I'm Trinity. Triny for short."

"Okay...Triny," Gold replied.

Trinity nodded and walked away.

"I hope you're still in one piece the next time I see you," she laughed, and she walked away.

* * *

Gold stumbled over his Pokégear and landed face flat onto the floor. He sighed, slowly sitting up again, picking up his Pokégear now that he was down on the ground too.

Checking his Pokégear, he realised he had 2 new messages. He opened the first one.

_Gold,_

_We have a Kanto-Johto Pokédex owner meeting tomorrow at 9am, at Prof. Oak's lab. Please come. It should end shortly after that, as it is more of a important message._

_Prof. Elm_

Gold checked the date of the message. It was yesterday. Meaning the 'tomorrow' was today. And it was now 11am.

Gold slapped his forehead, realising that he had missed the meeting. Oh well...

He looked at the second message.

_Gold,_

_Where the heck were you?! You missed a meeting, in case you're still being dunderheaded and not knowing what happened. Well, it wasn't much of a meeting, it was a little discussion and a bit of a warning. Apparently, there's a new "Team Rocket" on the rise, but we don't know what they are really planning. So we have to be careful. So do be careful, Gold, and hope you have a good day ahead._

_Crys_

"Oh," said Gold. Another Team Rocket?! What were they trying to do now? He sighed. More drama for him again, when he was _just_ blasted with problems.

Gold was bored. He didn't want to be stuck at home and play video games, but he couldn't go out either. What if he just accidentally looked at someone in the eyes?

Moping around at home wouldn't do any good to his current mood either.

He suddenly felt constricted, stressed, panicked, frustrated, in contrast to his usual free and happy-go-lucky self. It was mind-wrecking.

I need some fresh air, he thought. He pictured open plains, breaths of wind and flowing waters.

He needed some of that... In fact, thinking it through, he could go outdoors, to some isolated place. Then he wouldn't have to worry about accidentally harming anyone.

Shoving the Pokégear onto his wrist, he grabbed his bag on the side chair, as well as his Pokémon, and paced down the stairs. "Mum, I'm leaving for a while!" he yelled.

"Mm," she mumbled in reply, still in deep thought, presumably still dwelling over Trinity's sudden arrival, as Gold carefully but swiftly opened the door and went out.

* * *

"Yo Silver!"

The red-headed guy looked up, only to look down again after catching a glimpse of the golden-eyed boy.

Gold leaped over to Silver's side. "Hey Silv," he greeted casually, of course noticing how newly beautiful Silver was... Wait what-

"Hi," replied SIlver monotonously. "Um, I didn't expect you here... Just saying..."

He turned and started to walk away when Gold held him back, firmly on his upper arm. Silver didn't flinch.

"Wait. Why are you here?" asked Gold.

"Just training as usual," Silver blankly stated, without looking at Gold. Good, in a way. Gold didn't want him to suffer the...whatever that Zigzagoon suffered. Remembering that incident sent shivers around his body.

"I've come here to relax," said Gold in a rather cheery tone to cover up his uneasiness, knowing Silver wouldn't bother to ask about him.

"Mmph," muffled Silver, and walked away the moment Gold let go of his arm.

Gold stared at Silver's direction, admiring his weird boyish beauty and suddenly noticed there was something on Silver's head. Focusing in even more (his eyes could do that), he realised it was a DD-MM-YYYY date.

_"So you see, we're not exactly abnormal, we're special. Our eyes have much more powers than normal people. We not only see people for their inner soul and their superficial appearance, but also, for some reason, we can see the details. Like when they are born, when they are going to die, and we can even see if they have guilt in their souls."_

_When they were going to die._

Gold's first instinct was to look away, pretend he could see nothing and not cause stress to himself, but he also had this drive to look at it. And he was curious.

So, he read it... Okay, he would remember the day and month just for the sake of doing so, and the year...

_Wait. It's the current year._

With the date now implanted in his mind, he didn't need to look directly at Silver again. He looked closer at it, unbelievingly.

_It is this year._ Silver... He was going to die this year.

_What date then?!_

Gold compared the dates of then and Silver's "death day", as Gold guiltily coined. He was jolted by the closeness of the dates.

Calculating the days that his buddy had left, Gold felt his heart wrench excruciatingly.

Silver only had 10 more days to live.

* * *

**(A/N)** NUUUU SILVER! NUUUUUUUU ASDrjFUhWXb

Okay, excuse my little rant about my own plot and let me slowly wither away~

Before that happens, sorry for the 1 month wait again... And Softball made it worse. Monday, Tuesday and Friday plus other stuff like 3rd Lang and I mean HOW AM I GOING TO MAKE TIME FOR WRITING OTL

Also, don't you all see the OBVIOUS SELF INCLUDE I MADE THERE... Trinity... Argh you probably didn't even notice until I told you... Let's just say I am not anything like her I NEEDED NAMES

Good news is, this book would prob end at 15 chapters, 20 the most, and that means... Given the rate I am going... It's gonna end next year in the mid-year :O

Sorry I'm used to writing one-shots because you don't need to update regularly because it's a one-shot...

BAP'S ONESHOT ESPECIALLY THE MV IS AWESOME

Let's all ignore that and also ignore my awkwardness.

Withering away and ending this long A/N...

Bye :D

P.S. Not a Baby... Do not misunderstand... And excuse any mistakes in the chapter :P


	4. Chapter 3

**(A/N)** At the time I had finished this it was 10.11 at night. I was satisfied with it after editing, thinking I could upload it on the same day, applauding myself for it only being that early... When I realised... MY INTERNET CONNECTION WAS SOMEHOW BROKEN AMD I COULDN'T UPLOAD IT! ARGHHH

The rage I was feeling filled me to the brim, I had wanted to explode, but I ended up sighing in defeat, deciding to wait until the connection was fixed...

AND HERE YOU HAVE THE NEXT CHAPTER!

* * *

Gold went home immediately. His mother was busy in the kitchen, so he went up without disturbing her.

Lying on his bed, his mind just simply refused to think about anything else other than Silver. Which was mind-wrecking, no doubt.

Silver couldn't die. Not yet. He wasn't ready.

Perhaps a few months' warning would have prepared Gold better, but 10 days... That was too soon. Too soon for Gold to be able to get an exact reaction yet.

10 days... 240 hours... 14,400 minutes... 860,000 seconds, just ticking by...

Every second closer to his best friend's premature death.

The impact this news was much worse than he would've expected. Why would he feel this sad? Is it supposed to be like this?

Gold sat up straight, looking around the room aimlessly. He just couldn't imagine, Silver dying so young... So early... He had barely managed to know anything about the mysterious boy.

Sure he knew about his parentage (well the father side) and his pathetic excuse of a childhood, but those were only facts. External, scratching the surface facts. Gold wanted to know what his mindset was, and how he thought things through before making decisions, and how his mind even worked, roughly, at least. Quite an impossible feat, Gold had admitted to himself.

But Silver was just going to leave forever, before he could do that? Before he was given a chance to be an actual friend to Silver? It just wasn't fair.

Gold closed his eyes. What exactly would life be without Silver?

There would be no Team Rocket.

There would be no one to really oppose him and be his rival.

There would be no one's missions  
to be "party-crashed".

There would be no one who stole the Pokédex or the Totodile.

There would be no thief to chase after.

There would be no desire to have the Pokédex at that time.

Gold wouldn't be a Pokédex owner.

He wouldn't have to face the Mask of Ice at the lake.

He wouldn't have been nearly frozen to death.

He wouldn't have met Crystal on the boat.

He wouldn't have saved the region. He wouldn't be anything, and someone might've taken his place, as well as Silver's.

He wouldn't have learnt or experienced so much.

Everything would be different. And Gold just simply could not imagine life like that. Silver was such a crucial part of his life, so the least he could do was to try to get to know him better.

And try to make sure he doesn't die with regrets.

* * *

_Fine, at Mt. Moon_

That was the only sentence Silver had replied him with through Pokégear, but that was enough for Gold.

After the countless spam of messages he had sent Silver, he was almost certain he wouldn't have gotten a reply. Silver must have replied just to shut him up, but at least he _did_ reply. He might have faked the destination, but then again Silver was smart enough to know that Gold would just spam him again and again until he had found him.

He was hanging from Totaro's foot in a second, already on his was to Mt. Moon.

He had a plan. A good one too, he thought.

Step 1: Find out what's on his bucket list.

* * *

Silver was taking a small break from his arduous training, sitting at a side of the open mountain area, gazing into the sky blankly. Gold had comfortably invited himself to sit next to Silver.

"So whaddya want."

Gold smirked. An outsider would have thought Silver didn't know there was an extra human with him. Silver just didn't always acknowledge someone's presence in obvious way, especially one's of the likes of Gold himself.

He already knew this was how Silver was like. Being friends with someone for years does have its benefits, even when the someone is an introvert.

"Hey Silver!" Gold said cheerily, not at all fazed by Silver's dullness.

"Whaddya want."

Gold put on a more serious face. "I'm not gonna beat about the bush this time. I hope."

The other boy's face remained blank as he leaned towards him involuntarily. "Do you have a bucket list?"

Silver's facial expression changed to a slightly confused one. "...bucket list? Like things I want to do before I die?"

"No, it's a list full of buckets," Gold said sarcastically. "Okay yes. What do you want to do before you die? Honestly."

Silver narrowed his eyes. "I'm sure you're not that dumb to expect me to tell you."

"I know you won't tell me," Gold explained. "Not yet. That's why I want to persuade it out of you."

Silver crossed his arms. "Okay, go ahead."

Gold smiled. "Do you know why I want to know what's on your bucket list?"

"To humiliate me? Tell the whole world? I don't know, why?"

Gold opened his mouth confidently.  
"Well... ...well to be honest I can't tell you why..." _Epic fail_, he thought to himself and closed his mouth.

"Do you know something I don't?" asked Silver, lifting an eyebrow.

"Well... Yes." Gold replied. "I can't tell you." _You wouldn't believe me... You'd think I'm talking rubbish._

Silver sighed. "Okay, what's your real motive?"

"I'm not doing this for fun," said Gold, frowning, "I'm serious about this. No motives."

"No motives at all?"

"Look, I just want to understand you better," Gold said in exasperation, "I want to be a closer friend to you. We've been friends for years and yes, I know it's sort of far-fetched because we aren't really friends, just people working together for years and at loggerheads with each other but I just want to put aside all those arguments and be your...best friend. I really, really want to be a good friend to you."

He was half-lying, but this was a part of the truth.

Silver seemed stunned for a moment, and even Gold was impressed with his own sincerity in the speech.

"I... I want to dance in the rain like I'm without any worries," Silver blurted out.

Gold smiled awkwardly in surprise. "I wouldn't expect this kind of thing to be on your bucket list," he said, biting his cheek to prevent him from showing any sign of laughter.

"Look, I'm human too," he muttered. "I don't even know why I told you that..."

"I'm not gonna laugh at you!" he said firmly. "I have that on my bucket list too. Done it a long time ago, over and over again."

Silver leaked out a faint smile. "So now what are you going to do..." his smile faded again.

Gold was beaming. "Just come with me, I'm gonna take you to a place." He sent out his Totaro again and was in the air. Silver went on his Darkrow, following Gold obediently like he rarely does; and a distinct, not strong, but distinct smile flashed on his face.

* * *

Step 2 progressing: Help him fulfil his bucket list wish.

As Silver flew alongside Gold. He started to feel dampness in the air.

Gold grinned a big smile that could be seen for miles. "Silver?" he asked, voice brimming with excitement.

"Hm?"

"We're approaching Route 33. You know why we're going there?"

"Mm?"

"It's a place that always rains!"

Gold yelled in glee before the both of them plunged into a drizzly rain.

"Ngh..." grunted the boy beside him whose long hair was starting to feel heavy carrying the extra weight of the water.

The two of them landed onto the ground, now being pelted by the fairly strong downpour.

"No one here," Gold muttered, dragging Silver near the trees at the grassy area.

"Won't we get struck by lightning like this?" asked Silver.

"You gotta take some risks doing this," Gold told him in a bubbly tone. "Anyway, we aren't gonna dance under the trees. We just need a bit of shelter before going on."

"...So, how do you dance in the rain like you have no worries?" asked Silver.

"I don't do that immediately," explained Gold. "I play in the rain before I get hyped to dance."

"So how do you do that?"

Gold glanced at Silver's face directly for a split second before looking away, afraid of the consequences if he didn't control himself.

"...I know, let's play tag!" he exclaimed. "...wait, you'll surely win, you're Silver..."

"..."

"...argh, I can't think of anything... Let's just lie on the ground and play dead."

Without a word, Gold headed out into the grass patches and laid himself onto the ground, his limbs spread out, his face looking up into the sky with his eyes closed.

Silver found this a very comical sight. "I think I'll join you..." Silver lightly joked, and laid himself in the same position Gold was in.

"Heyo, Silver, welcome to the fake-dead club!" Gold announced in a parody-like fashion. "We welcome all new members, so make yourself at home!"

"How do you know I'm not a spy planning to sabotage the club?" Silver asked in the same tone as Gold did.

"I don't know!" Gold replied back with a dramatically proud air before suddenly bursting into uncontrollable laughter.

Silver grinned.

Gold pushed himself up to stand. "Hey Silver, open your eyes."

Silver used his hand to make a shelter for his eyes and they peaked open.

"Gah, I was hoping you would just open your eyes and the raindrops would fall into your eyeballs and you'd scream or something..." Gold murmured.

"Too bad," replied Silver.

"Anyway, raise your hands up."

Silver closed his eyes again. "Now why should I? Are you planning something?"

"Aww come on, trust me."

"Fine..." He obediently raised his hands up and the next moment, he felt 2 warm hands grab his wrists.

"What are you trying to- argh!"

Just to see what was going on Silver had opened his eyes, but without his hands for shelter the rain went into his eyes directly.

Gold just laughed at his mishap while he closed his eyes again. "Looks like your luck ran out just there."

"I hate you Gold!" shouted Silver.

"I love you too!" Gold shouted back, sticking his tongue out afterwards.

"Okay, let me go now? I've lost trust in you."

"No no no okay I'm sorry," Gold apologised frantically. "Please don't lose trust in me! It won't work like this! I wasn't even planning on making your eyes open like that to torture you... Just trust me, okay?"

"Eh, fine," Silver replied, not really needing the long apology since he never really "lost trust" in Gold.

Gold pulled Silver up. "Kay, I really need you to trust me now..." he told Silver, slightly nervous.

"Mm?"

Gold suddenly grinned like a maniac. "Let's go!"

Suddenly Silver found himself twirling and spinning around in circles, arms still connected with Gold's, while yelling in protest alongside Gold's screams of joy.

"Ahahaha!" Gold suddenly laughed midway. "This was so much more fun than I remembered it to be!"

"I'm... Trying... Not to lose control..." Silver managed to say in between his laugh-like panting.

"Now for the most fun part!"

Without warning, Gold had let go of Silver's wrists, causing him to go spiralling in the other direction.

Silver had managed to stop himself from falling and Gold went over to his side, still laughing like crazy.

"Argh! Why didn't you just play along and fall down!" he exclaimed not seriously.

"Who said being my best friend was easy?" Silver replied, smirking.

"No one," huffed Gold, "and you have to get up yourself now. I ain't helping you."

Silver easily got up by himself.

"You know, I haven't done that in a long time," said Silver.

"The twirly thing?"

"Yeah. The last time I ever did that was with Blue. When I was still held captive."

"Have you ever played in the rain?" asked Gold.

"No. We were only tortured in the rain," said Silver bitterly.

"...Change of subject," Gold intercepted and turned his body to the other side. "Now let's dance in the rain!"

"How?" asked Silver.

"Well... You just dance... In the rain!"

Silver looked down. "I don't know how to dance..."

"Nonsense! Everyone can dance!" shouted Gold. "I can Irish dance, so I'm gonna do just that right now."

Gold pulled off a successful dance which left Silver in thought. "A dance... Where you only stay in one place?"

"Yup!" said Gold, "I took a programme when I was young that taught me how to Irish dance. Don't judge."

"...but why is it called "Irish" dance? What is Irish?"

Gold tilted his head to the side in thought. "...I have no idea either," he ended. "But it sounds nice! And the dance is fun too! Join me~"

Silver hesitated but ended up joining Gold, trying to mimic his feet actions.

"There, you're doing it! It's not that hard, is it?"

"...I guess so... It's kinda fun..."

"Ahaha let me just take a picture of you now to imprint this moment forever in ink!" Gold joked.

Silver stopped immediately. "No. Do that, you die," he said sternly.

"Eh, you've stopped now," Gold waved his hands in front of him, "So..."

Gold poked Silver in the side. "POKE WAR!"

Gold began poking Silver on the side and he started laughing uncontrollably.

"Stop... It tickles!" Silver laughed in between words.

Gold stuck his tongue out (for the second time of the day) and continued to poke Silver as he tried to run away.

"Oh I'll get my revenge, Gold!" Silver growled as he began poking Gold back at a furious speed.

"AHHH! THE LEGENDARY POKES OF DOOM!" yelled Gold. "But, I shall make my comeback WITH MY SUPER-POWERED POKE OF LIGHT!"

They ended up in a screaming pile of poking arms and scurrying legs, but they both had fun. They really had a lot of fun that day.

* * *

***Special: Silver's POV! (I deserve a clap because I kind of suck at POVs and don't dare to write them often)***

* * *

...Did I really just dance and play in the rain with Gold?

I had declined Gold's offer to follow me home, so he'd left, and I'm just walking around here. I've passed Azalea Town... So I'm approaching the Ilex Forest now.

It is pretty peaceful here...

I really don't know what just happened there at Route 33, or at Mt. Moon.

Did I really tell him that I wanted to do that? The dancing in the rain thing? Because I really did want to do that. I really really did. And now that I've did it... I feel really happy. I get this feeling that... I would die with one less regret.

Actually, I had always wanted to dance in the rain... It sounds really out of character even to me, but the thought of dancing in the rain without giving a dang really did make me excited. I don't know why... Maybe it's a natural instinct.

I don't know how to explain what I'm feeling now... But it's almost like, since Gold was with me, it makes all the difference and it's like... I feel happier because he was the one who made me do that.

Also, have I always been that ticklish?

And I feel that something's not right with him. I mean, suddenly calling Crys pretty and running off blushing, which really strongly suggests that he likes her, and... I mean, that's sort of expected, but it was so sudden... And he just suddenly wanted to be my best friend. It boggles my mind...

Also, it's like he always tries to avoid eye contact... Like he's doing something wrong...

But I can feel that he really wanted to be my best friend. But what if... maybe it was true, but he did have another motive...

_Crunch._ Oh, just an especially brown and crackly leaf.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, thinking about how odd Gold had been lately.

Truth is, I really want to be his best friend too... I had always viewed him as my best friend, along with Crys... But we never got along well, and we didn't bother to try to become good friends, until recently...

And now it's like he wants to be my best friend, but I have a feeling he's planning something and is going to backstab me, or get something from me.

I just wish that he'd never wanted to be my best friend... Then it could stay non-conflicting.

My head hurts now. I just really feel depressed nowadays... My father is dead now, my childhood is messed up, I have criminal blood and was a criminal anyway by stealing the Pokédex and stuffs... I've never had a normal life, have I?

I also overthink and make everything ten thousand times worse.

It's just at these times that I sincerely hope that something, preferably age, but anything or anyone, would just kill me before I end up killing myself.

* * *

**(A/N)** Silver please don't kill yourself... I'll jump off a cliff if you do... I feel like this chapter is written a bit awkwardly (as usual), so forgive me and review on any mistakes? If you want to.

Anyway apologies for late chapter! There's been alot of work and I'm a bit emotionally stressed nowadays; nearly fainted in class recently :O HAVE YOU EVER FAINTED BEFORE ITS SCARY, WELL AT LEAST BEFORE YOU FAINT

But I really like this story so it's gonna keep going... GOT TO PERSEVERE! Ahaha :)

One month per chapter... Must be nerve-wrecking for you guys :) and by that I meant you're all like "no, it's totally cool, I seriously don't get withdrawal symptoms because you haven't updated in a day, and I don't go crazy when you update, because it's just this random story" #sadlife hehe

I wonder just how many of you read my BS :P

By the way I created a random poll, just updating with the ghosts.

K bye!

-Do I ever sign off? I think my memory's shortening


	5. Chapter 4

**(A/N)** I don't think anyone else keep track of when I update but I know, it's been more than a month... sorry :P and here is the next chapter!

* * *

_(1) Message from Gold._

Silver looked at the digital words and opened the message.

_Soooooo... U free today? What else is on ur list?_

He stared at it for a good while before he replied back.

_Yeah, I'm free today... I'll tell you when I meet you. ...Mt. Silver?_

He sent the message, and in barely no time at all he got a reply.

_Mt. Silver? Of course okay. Haha, it has ur name in it :P_

Silver couldn't help but smile at that.

_Ok._

He pressed the send button and got going.

Mt. Silver...

* * *

Gold spotted Silver coming from a distance.

"Hey Silver!" shouted Gold, waving his hand profusely to the approaching figure in the distance.

"I could see you, Gold..." muttered Silver as he approached.

"I realised," Gold replied. "So... What's next on your bucket list?"

Silver looked around cautiously. "...I'll tell you when we get into the mountain."

"Ookay..."

* * *

The two of them headed inside, soon fighting against the strong wild Pokemon in the mountain.

"So... What's on your list?" asked Gold, defeating the wild Steelix with one last hit from Ambipom.

"It has to do with here," said Silver, lowering his voice.

They went to a side.

"You know how Red is always at the peak of the mountain?"

Gold nodded.

"Okay, don't judge me... But I've always wanted to push him off the edge..."

Gold stepped back, eyes wide. He shook a finger at Silver. "Naughty naughty..." he scolded jokingly. "Ahaha, actually, I've kinda always wanted to do that too..." He playfully winked.

Silver shuddered from Gold's wink, for no reason apparent to him, but he cleared his mind of that easily anyway. "So? Are we seriously gonna push him of the edge?" he asked.

"Yup!" Gold replied, smiling. "Just that, of course, we have to make sure he doesn't get injured... And we have to make plans, too..."

There was a glint in Gold's eyes, and Silver could tell that he loved planning these kinds of practical jokes on people... Whether its good or not, Silver didn't know for sure. But, it was going to help him with the prank on Red.

In fact, hearing his plan, Silver realised how good the plan actually was.

Silver just hoped nothing would go wrong.

* * *

After a good amount of battling (and their spare Repels) they reached the top cave and went out through the opening.

"Hey Red~" Gold called out to the silhouette lingering over the near edge of the mountain.

The figure turned around as the duo walked closer towards him.

"Hello, Gold, Silver," Red greeted, smiling. "Came here to visit me?"

Gold's expression turned determined. "I want to battle you, Red!"

Red seemed mildly interested. "Challenging me to a battle?"

"Yup," said Gold, keeping his eyes on the ground, the surroundings, anywhere other than Red's eyes. "Well, it isn't very realistic of a goal to defeat you... But I just want to gauge myself against you." He smiled, not a sign of cheekiness present.

Red laughed. "That's perfectly fine," he said, smiling widely. "But may I ask why Silver's with you?"

Silver perked up at the sound of his name.

"Well, we're on a date, you know?" said Gold, twirking his head to the side with a sarcastic expression.

"Woah," said Red, his eyes widening. "You two are dating now?"

"Yeah- huh... w-wait, wha.." his face contorted into a mixture of confusion.

"_No!_ I wasn't being serious, Red, didn't expect you believe that..." he laughed after a while.

"Oh," said Red, scratching the back of his head. "Ehehe, sorry..."

Silver touched his cheeks and found them unnaturally warm.

Well wasn't that awkward...

"Um... I-I was just training here..." stuttered Silver, suddenly wanting to disappear.

Gold helped Silver and butted in.

"I bounced up to him and then somewhere in the small talk," ("that was forced", Silver had added in weakly) "I mentioned that I was going to challenge you to a battle. So he came here with me."

Gold has delivered that fictitious situation in such a calm way that made Silver wonder for a moment if he had training lessons on this.

"Oh I see," said Red. "Okay, we can start the battle-"

"Hey Red," said Silver, suddenly right beside him.

"Wha-" Before anything else, Silver gave Red a shove and he fell backwards, his whole body toppling over the edge.

"Aaahhh!"

As Gold and Silver laughed their faces off, a slightly shaken Red had rose from behind the edge on Mantaro.

"What... Just happened..." asked Red, hopping off the blue creature and onto the mountain rock.

"Thanks Mantaro," said Gold in between his laughter, sending the Pokémon back into the Pokéball.

"You guys played a prank on me?!" Red exclaimed, indignant.

Gold and Silver just laughed even harder.

"That was a really good one..." panted Red. "You guys should get a degree at acting or something!"

"Well of course it was a good one... It was all planned by yours truly..." Gold bowed dramatically.

Red couldn't help himself but bursting into laughter. Ah, Red and his goodheartedness...

"Silver? Did Gold drag you into this or something?" he asked.

"Well actually, I was the one who suggested it," admitted Silver, sounding a little guilty. "I'm sorry Red, it was just something that I really wanted to do for a long time..."

"And I was helping him do what he had wanted to do for a long time," added Gold, in an almost out-of-place way.

"No, it's okay, Silver!" said Red. "I'm perfectly fine with that..."

"Yup, Silver!" said Gold, patting him on the back. "It's okay. We don't want regrets before death!"

Red had taken out his Pokégear and typed in some things before frowning at the screen. "...Hey guys... I have to go now... Some urgent stuff going on..."

"Kay. Bye!" shouted Gold. He turned towards Silver, but not fully. "Done for the day?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think..." Silver sent out his Honchrow. "I'll be going."

"Me too I guess-" Gold suddenly heard his Pokégear beep. "...don't wait for me, Silver. Go first."

"Okay, bye," Silver called out before flying off.

Gold opened the Pokégear message. It was from Red, and judging by his own phone's slow message-receiving, Red probably only sent this just before he left.

_If you're trying to be a closer friend to Silver... You're doing it right :)_

Gold smiled as he closed the messaging and sent out Totaro, flying off.

* * *

Gold found a note on his bed when he got home into his bedroom.

_Hey Gold,_  
_It's Triny :) I came over to check on you just now, uh, I kind of sneaked in, your mother wasn't around... Haha. Well, you weren't there, so I left this note you're reading now. I mean, I can't restrict you from going anywhere just because I want to check on you. So, I'll come by some other time, and I really hope you're doing well and not being put at the stake for being a demon or something... Okay I'm sorry I shouldn't joke about this... This note is getting long. Bye :)_  
_Trinity_

She had signed off with her name in fancy writing. For a middle aged woman she actually wrote the note in a pretty informal way.

_Oh well,_ thought Gold, reading the note. _I guess... She'll just come another time, anyway._

Right after he placed down his note, the familiar Pokégear ringtone sounded through the room.

Gold just sighed before shoving his head into a pillow.

He was already so tired... The last thing he wanted now was a Pokégear call. Who would want to call him anyway? The irritating freak...

Hastily he grabbed the Pokégear that he had taken off his wrist just before the call and answered it, lazily putting it to his ear. He made space for his mouth to talk with his head in the pillow.

"Hello?" he greeted, trying to sound as nice and polite as possible, but ended up still sounding sloppy.

"Hey Gold! It's me."

Crystal.

"Hi Crys. What do you want?" he asked unenergetically, muffling his already quite muffled voice.

"Okay Gold, this is important..." started Crystal.

_Please not be urgent, please not be urgent..._

"...and urgent. So wake up."

So much for his beauty sleep...

"We need to go to the Union Cave to check for any suspicious things going on, since there are high levels of activity there or somewhat. Anyway, you'd better be there, or else."

"Okaaayy..." groaned Gold.

"Yup! Okay, see you at the Route 33 entrance, by 2 at latest, okay? Bye!

_Click._

Gold groaned again and pulled his pillow against his face.

Well, it's that or Crystal's lecturing. Gold chose the former in a heartbeat.

* * *

Gold dragged his sluggish self to Route 33, quickening in pace once he felt the first few raindrops.

Eyeing the two figures standing at the cave entrance, he covered his head with his bag and rushed over to them, hiding under the umbrella that one of them was holding that barely managed to cover two people, let alone three.

"Hello, Gold, you're late," scolded Crystal.

"Wha- late?! It's 1.50! We're 10 minutes early!" exclaimed Gold in protest. "Make some space for me, please..."

"Well yes, but we could've started earlier if you didn't come so late." said Crystal, slightly frowning at Gold.

"Hey, you called the moment I came home and I went the moment you called! You can't blame me! You are depriving me of my rest!"

"Okay okay, stop arguing you two, we're already here and arguing would waste more time," Silver interjected.

"Since when were you a saving-time freak, Silver?" Gold scorned.

"Okay, Silver's right, arguing would get us nowhere," said Crystal hurriedly.

"Fine..." said Gold, calming himself down.

Crystal cleared her throat. "Okay, so the point of being here is to identify the suspicious activity and try not in be involved in any fighting if necessary. Also, Professor Oak stressed, absolutely stressed that we must stick together. All the time. No excuses.

"I mean, that does make sense, if one of us is alone, it's pretty dangerous and risky. And if we're caught by the enemy while alone...

"Gah, why does it always have to rain here? Who would have fun being soaked in the rain anyway?"

Gold gave Silver a knowing look that was reciprocated.

"Okay, let's go in," said Crystal, heading into the Union Cave, Gold and Silver following suit.

* * *

"So comes the boring part."

"Sh!" shushed Crystal. "Gold, we don't want to attract attention to ourselves."

"Oh come on, the Union cave can be assessed by anyone," he replied casually, calmly looking forward, then brought his voice to a small whisper. "It would be more suspicious to sound too quiet."

"But-"

"Gold's got a point," Silver interjected again. "Not to purposely side him or anything, but he's sort of right. Just don't make a huge racket and attention won't come to us."

Gold smiled. For what reason, he couldn't remember at the time.

"Okay," said Silver, looking around briefly. "Left or right? Or backwards?"

Gold snapped out of his trance and looked around. They were at a fork, a route left, a route right, and they were in some sort of room they went in from the hole at the back.

A mechanical noise sounded and the trio were put on guard.

"Did anyone hear...?" asked Crystal, and got her answer from her friends' expressions.

Silver's face turned from the relaxed and even slightly bored expression to focused and serious. "Let's guard each other's backs," he said, and the three of them were back-to-back, in a triangular position.

But unexpectedly something shone from right in the middle of the triangle. The three of them turned around simultaneously, almost in a music theatre-like fashion, and right from that light, Zubats and Golbats flew out right into their faces.

And it wasn't just a few of them. There were hundreds, possibly thousands of them, charging right at the three of them, forcing them right behind where they were facing.

* * *

Silver had turned his whole body back and dashed out of the small room, finding himself outside just where he entered the room. Looking at the cave opening he went through, he saw all the Zubats and Golbats flying right out, forming a bottleneck, and he realised he had two options: stay and fight his way through, or run away and let them go away by themselves.

Silver decided to save his energy and began running away.

Crystal wasn't as fast though; she had been forced right out of the left path. At first she held up her defences with Mega, but soon crippled under the heavy onslaught and was pushed backwards, picking up speed as she went further and further back.

Out of nowhere, she dropped downwards with a cry. Plunging towards the ground towards her doom, she quickly sent out Natee that eventually managed to catch her with his psychic powers.

Landing on the ground safely, she started to swear.

"Gah! I knew this would happen!" she exclaimed. "It always happens like this, saying we have to stick together and then we get separated! It always happens like this, right, Natee?"

The psychic bird stared at her helplessly.

"Sigh... I guess we'll have to find them, don't we? Well, we ended up here, so I guess we have to try and get back up... Let's go, Natee."

* * *

Gold stood there in a mind-sucking daze, staring at the wall in front of him. He wasn't too sure how it made him react so strongly, but it did.

Right after running out of the tunnel from the right fork, he had turned around to see where the Zubats and Golbats were. They were flying right into his face, but the moment he was so sure they were going to hit him, they turned.

They had diverted their pathway around Gold, and even joined back after they went past his body.

It was as if the Pokémon were going out of their way just to stay out of his area. It somehow imbued a sense of power in him. Gold could feel that it was disturbingly artificial, but it gave him the same feeling all the same. Power... Like he could smash buildings with his fists. Although it that could actually be possible, just not with his fists, but his eyes.

That's why he felt so uncomfortable.

Was it because...the Pokémon actually recognised him as a...as out of the ordinary?

Gold slowly looked around. He was alone. Which meant that he was separated from Silver and Crystal. Just his luck.

There was a wall from where he just entered, too. It was just like suddenly, after the herd of Pokémon had passed, the opening covered itself up and made a wall. That was another thing that disturbed Gold greatly.

Sighing, he gracefully turned around and started to walk away. He needed to find a way out anyway.

He was out of the ordinary... Yes, that was what he called himself, since he didn't even know what he was. 'What'...yeah, that was a harsh way to address himself. But he wasn't a normal human, was he?

Speaking of which, it had only been days since he had regained full vision. He remembered the first time he had saw the world in full colour. He was amazed by everything, like a little kid would be in a toy factory.

Now, it didn't feel as amazing anymore. Not that it was any worse, but it just didn't feel as magical as it did at first. It was like he had grown...used to it. Gold didn't ever think he would grow used to it.

And about his "no eye contact" legacy... It didn't seem as foreign. He was doing it so much, in fact all the time, and it just felt like a daily routine.

And to think that it had only been 3 days. Probably that was what also made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

Gold suddenly thought of using his Pokégear to call Silver or Crystal and checked it, only to realise that it had ran out of battery. Argh, he hadn't had time to charge his Pokégear just now...

Hopefully the others have kept in touch and are finding their way in the cave, perhaps even already together, finding Gold.

Might as well make my way-

Suddenly he heard a blasting sound and turned around, facing a shocking blast of energy hurtling towards him. He had barely managed to duck the blow, sending the blast smashing against the ground, creating a force that sent Gold lurching forward.

Looking ahead, he spotted an unfamilliar man staring at him. He had the impulse to look away, like he did with other people, but something told him that he was the enemy, so why hold his power back?

In his mind's conflict, his body became confused and he felt a perturbing feeling in his stomach that grew and grew. Without warning, energy was being forcefully expelled from his eyes, shooting out at the man standing there.

The entire cave roared angrily as the room filled with millions of explosion sparks and flickering flames. As the area cleared, through the dust, Gold caught a glimpse of a battered up man stumbling his way out. He was about to run after him, but he suddenly realised how dizzy and exhausted he was, and the world spinned and spinned and slowly warped out of sight.

He crumpled onto the ground.

* * *

"...what the hell was that noise?" asked Crystal, coming to a stop. "An explosion?"

She could hear a loud boom coming from a not-so-far away distance.

"I hope Silver and Gold are okay," she muttered to Natee. "In fact, I hope they weren't involved in the- whatever that noise was."

Natee nodded his head.

"Let's go check that noise."

* * *

She entered the room to find the whole section of the cave misshaped and lopsided, with boulders all gathered the corners and pieces looking like they have been ripped out of the cave walls and rocks covering the room floor.

"Oh... God..."

She saw a person in red and black lying on the ground.

_Is that... Gold?!_

She ran over the body's side. Yes, it was Gold, his body covered in cuts and bruises, his cap fallen off to the side, face slighty wincing, but only very slightly.

Crystal's motherly instincts went on overdrive.

Checking his breathing, she sighed of relief. Well, at least he was still alive.

"My god, Gold, what kind of trouble did you get into... What the hell happened anyway?"

She stared helplessly at him.

"I guess you can't answer me since you're unconscious."

She sighed, and continued to look at his face. He wasn't bad looking at all, in fact, he was rather handsome. But now, it was quite badly littered with cuts and scratches, and his hairstyle was messed up too, his signature fringe fraying out in all directions. Sub-consciously, she gently reached her hand out onto his hair, using her fingertips to comb his fringe back into how it was originally.

"He'd always hate it when his fringe goes wrong..." she murmured.

At this moment, Silver flounced into the room, and Crystal quickly retracted her hand back.

"Hello, Crystal!" he said. "I heard a boom and quickly tried to make my way here. What happened?"

He went over to Gold.

"What happened to him?"

"I don't know!" said Crystal. "I came in and found him in this state."

"...well, we better bring him back first. We all better go back first."

Crystal took one of Gold's Pokéballs and sent out Explotaro, and carried Gold up onto him with Silver's help. Then they headed out.

* * *

Silver had silently entered the ward Gold was hospitalised in. He went over to the side of the bed and looked at the unconscious Gold silently for a moment before speaking.

"Hey, Gold."

Gold stayed silent. He was unconscious, after all.

"Um, I don't know exactly why I need I be here... But yeah."

Gold was still quiet.

"...the nurses said you won't be out for long, but that you were very, severely exhausted. Is it because you were too tired having to help me fulfil my bucket list and ending up being really exhausted? Because if then, I'm...sorry."

Silence.

"Okay, so the point of me being here is that, I really appreciate you trying to be my best friend and such. Why you suddenly want to, I have no idea. But it's really nice of you. Thanks.

"...I'm really awkward, you should know that. That's why I can't say that directly to you. And plus, it's like, only 2 things, and I already feel so grateful. I guess it's because no one's really gone out of their way for me. There's Blue, but she's was always there since I could remember. It's like she was supposed to take care of me, but you weren't. You could've just left me alone but you didn't.

"To be honest, I had only planned to say thank you and leave, but things don't always go as planned... So... Thank you, Gold."

Silver gave him a wide grin, right from the heart, and slowly made his way out of the room.

* * *

**(A/N)** I just realised on this one-shot I wrote, there was this wild "Pairing:" thingie out of nowhere... WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME ABOUT IT?!

Proof read like, once, and that was all :/ so if I messed up, sorry. Didn't want to delay any longer.

So anyways, I had common tests so yeah... Also, admittedly, I was stuck halfway, hehe. Haven't really planned the story out by chapter, and also didn't want to post a super short chapter. This is a longer chapter isn't it? However it will be holidays soon and that means sooner updates... I hope :P

Also, do you feel like the last part with Silver was a bit too fast? I sort of think so. But this is a pretty fast paced fic, so yeah. Haha :)

Till next time!


	6. Chapter 5

**(A/N)** Okay, this may not be the best time to say it but I really want to put this across... in the A/N at the back.

But its okay, just read the next chapter first...

* * *

"Need any help with that?"

Gold scowled at Crystal. "No!" he exclaimed indignantly. "I don't need your help! I'm not injured or anything, it's only _fainting_, not a crisis! God!"

"Okay okay okay, calm down, Gold," Crystal replied, sighing. "Sorry. You know how I am, nagging all the time... I'm just worried for you, okay?"

"There's NOTHING wro-" Gold calmed himself down before continuing. "There's nothing wrong with me, honestly. I understand your concern, but I'm really okay. _Really_."

"Yeah, I know, blame me and my motherliness..."

She fiddled with his fingers uncomfortably before taking a deep breath and speaking up again.

"Okay, so the Professors have been wondering what was going on back there, in the cave, before you fainted, you know. So... What happened? Do you recall anything?"

"Yeah, 'course I do," Gold replied, grumbling. He stared at the ground in concentration. "Hm... Oh yeah, I was walking, trying to find my way out, and suddenly this huge blast came towards me, I ducked it, then this guy I've never seen before appeared. Then..."

_Oh no, I can't say about what my eyes did_, he thought, panicking. _I need to come up with something..._

"I... I don't remember anything else," he lied through his teeth. "There was this explosion, and I just...blacked out, I guess."

Crystal shot him a weird look. "Are you sure that's all?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's all that I can remember anyway," replied Gold, keeping his voice as normal as possible.

Crystal had an unconvinced look on her face. "...You know, this is important, if you have anything to say-"

"Yeah I had something to say, I already said it."

Crystal raised her eyebrows. "Are you su-"

"_Yes, I'm sure,_" Gold insisted, clenching his jaw furiously.

Crystal sighed again. "Okay," she said defeatedly, "But if anything, tell me or the professors, okay?"

"Yeah yeah," mumbled Gold. "Wait, what time is it?"

Crystal's darkened expression lightened into a smile. "It's nearly afternoon, Gold. You woke up the next day."

"Um, is Silver here?" asked Gold hopefully.

"Nope. He went to train somewhere."

Gold fidgeted for a while. "Er, I can be discharged from the hospital, right?"

"Yeah, you are allowed to be discharged, but before that the nurses will have to give you a check up."

"Gah, I've got to wait..." muttered Gold.

Crystal laughed good-heartedly. "Why do you want to see Silver so bad?"

Gold was at loss for words. "Ah... Um... I'm... Reasons," he finished off dully.

"Taken a liking to him, haven't you?" teased Crystal.

Gold immediately retorted back. "I don't like him in that way, okay, I'm a straight guy. Who honestly doesn't have anything against dating a guy, but still straight," he protested.

"Huh- I don't mean it in that way," explained Crystal, snickering slightly, "I meant 'like' as in, friendly like. Like you just want to be his good friend."

"...Oh... Haha, well then yes. I want to be his really good friend."

"Heh. Okay, see you later. Going now," said Crystal with a laughing smile.

"Yup. Bye."

Crystal went out and shut the door behind her, the door gently clanging against the frame.

Gold banged his head against the wall. Argh, that was so awkward...

* * *

The tinge of blue in the sky was much better than the hospital's bare white ceilings.

White and blue were two very beautiful colours... Although Gold did prefer blue to white, white was a bit too boring a colour for him. So it was refreshing to be looking at one of his favourite colours, after red and gold.

It was a new way of thinking about things, such as colours. He could even stare at a piece of coloured paper for an hour and not get bored. He felt like a 3-year-old for this, but given that his sight was only 4 days old it wasn't that bad in comparison.

Colour really was a new topic for him. It wasn't that he hadn't known what colours were, but he just hadn't known how it really looked like. He was sort of like a blind person, understanding that the sky was blue and the grass was green, but sadly, could not actually picture what blue and green were really like. And in his case, he could only interpret blue and green by what information his mind could make out by the little, computed-like messages from his clouded eyes.

Remember, Gold wasn't completely blind before, but just uniquely blinded. He could recognise things by the information that was filtered to his mind, so he actually knew what 'colour' anything was when he saw it, which is one reason why no one would suspect him of being colourblind at all, let alone _completely_ blind.

Now that he could finally experience colour, a lot of his viewpoints changed. He was really fascinated the first time he could see colour, Gold recalled, but it became a thing that was found in the background surprisingly quickly, although the topic could now still capture his attention.

Another thing that he finally understood was people having 'favourite colours'. Gold never really had a favourite colour because he hadn't had a chance to see even just one colour then. Maybe black, but Gold really didn't even see anything before the change.

His favourite colours - well, they were all so wonderful that he couldn't possibly only choose one - was gold, red and purple. They were all so special to him: the colour gold, other than sharing the same name as him, was a really desirable shining colour that stole his heart in the end. The colour red had struck him as striking the first time he saw the colour as well as anger and ferocity, but he also saw it as warm, strong and like...love, he guessed, and took a liking to it immediately. Purple was a very pleasant colour to look at, reminding him of something kind and gentle but also passionate in a way too.

He also really liked the colour silver. It was like grey, which honestly wasn't one of his favourite colours, but silver was a lighter, shinier version of grey. It was sort of like gold, but more modest and calm. Thinking again, it was one of his favourite colours, how did he even miss that out-

"Hey, what are you thinking about?"

Gold jerked up in surprise and turned to Green, who was standing quite a distance away.

The older guy smiled at him and started to walk towards a very startled Gold, who was trying to suppress his eyes' impulse to suck all the life out of him. Why Gold didn't just look away was because he found Green handsome. _Really, really_ handsome. That kind of handsome that wasn't according to what his eyes had defined as 'pretty' or 'ugly' as clear as black and white. Not that he would ever admit it out loud. Telling anyone else that he thought Green was hot? He'd rather eat a cactus.

He had really missed out on a lot without proper vision.

Green came to a stop in front of him, giving him a calm but cheery smile."Hi Gold," he greeted coolly.

Gold snapped back to his senses and looked away from him. "Hello, Green," he replied, slightly confused about Green suddenly becoming so amiable towards him for no reason. Was Gold in trouble? Nah, Green wouldn't be in such a high-spirited mood if he was.

Green simply nodded in acknowledgement to his greeting. After that, with nothing else to say, silence ensued between them and it soon became awkward. For Gold, that is. Green still kept his cool and even seemed relaxed.

It was too unbearable for Gold, so he eventually broke the silence. "Um, so, ur... Did I do something...? Why-"

"Why I just suddenly approached you out of the blue?" Green completed his sentence with a placid tone. "Well, I needed company. To be honest, I just came out from a very awkward situation and just happened to meet you afterwards. Anyway, don't you think we should start knowing more about each other, since we are fellow Pokédex owners and all?"

"...I guess so." Gold replied lamely.

"That's nice."

Green looked away with uncertainty before looking back at Gold and continuing.

"So... Would you like to... Have a coffee or tea or whatever that is you drink? There's a cafe nearby..."

Gold perked up at this. Green hid his nervousness quite well, but Gold could still see it. He had noticed more things nowadays anyway. Honestly, Gold wouldn't even have _dared_ to ask to have tea with him, given the cold air between the two of them.

"Sure... Maybe for a start, you should know that I like milkshakes and smoothies... Mango, especially."

"Yeah, I find that quite nice too." replied Green. "Come on, let's go."

* * *

Gold felt slightly awkward sitting on one of the fancy cafe chairs, using the thick straw to stir his smoothie distractedly while Green was calmly drinking his own banana milkshake.

Why had Green appeared out of nowhere? Why did he ask to have tea with him? It was just so bizarre and abrupt, and Gold couldn't think of any reason why Green would suddenly treat him so well.

Suddenly, looking at the detailed swirls he had made in his smoothie, a thought occurred to him. Was this how Silver felt when Gold approached him out of the blue to help him with... His bucket list? Silver wouldn't find any reason for him doing so, other than maybe wait dark motives or things of that sort, which wasn't what he was trying to do at all.

Did Green have any ulterior motives by suddenly being friendly to him? It honestly wouldn't be Green to do that though. So... Perhaps, maybe like him, Green had a complicated reason to why he couldn't tell Gold?

"A Pokédollar for your thoughts, Gold?" interrupted Green.

"...just wondering, why did you really suddenly approach me? What was that awkward situation you were talking about?"

Green cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Um, is it okay if I don't tell you about the situation? ...but I really just want to know you better, in a way."

Gold kept quiet and continued drinking his smoothie. _Guess he really doesn't want to talk about it..._

"You chose a pretty quiet corner of the cafe," Gold commented.

"Yeah," replied Green, smiling sheepishly, "I guess you can tell that I don't like noise when I'm eating- well, drinking something, especially when I'm with someone else. '_Maybe for a start, you should know that about me_'?"

Gold smiled in amusement while staring downwards at the table. "Right back at me, huh?"

"Yup."

Green was actually quite amusing... Gold originally thought that hanging out with him would be all serious. Sort of like how Crystal would be, but less naggy.

It was quiet, definitely, but Gold felt that the quietness was, although awkward a lot of the time, also somewhat good.

"Finished my milkshake," Green announced, almost proudly, holding up his empty cup. Gold looked at his own; it was barely halfway gone.

"Heh..." Gold murmured.

"It's okay, I can wait for you to finish it," said Green, putting down his cup onto the table. Gold quickly began to drink his smoothie.

Green laughed quietly, looking at Gold hurrying ."Take your time. Don't choke on your drink," he joked lightheartedly.

"This is how fast I normally drink my smoothie," protested Gold haughtily.

"Oh really?"

"...okay fine, maybe it is a little bit faster than I usually drink, but still quite fast."

Green laughed quietly to himself.

The smoothie was downed soon after.

"Okay, thanks for today, Gold," said Green. "I'll... See you some other time?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

Green smiled sincerely before walking off.

* * *

Gold was really confused by now.

_What the hell is happening to my life..._ he thought miserably, walking down the pavement in slow steady steps.

Nothing just made sense to him anymore, everything was going haywire and out of control... He felt helpless. Breathless. Because he honestly couldn't keep up with anything that was going on, he felt like he really was going to explode into madness one day...

_Alright, I just need to calm down..._

In brisker steps, Gold made his way to a big, blank wall where he laid his back against, arms casually at the side, his head tilted backwards such that it made contact with the wall as well.

'It's okay Gold. Be happy that you haven't gone mental yet.'

After settling himself down, he actually began to feel bored and even started to twitch around uncomfortably.

Surprisingly, everyone around him were so busy eating, talking, walking by, they didn't even seem to notice him leaning against the wall, only giving him a glance before turning away, possibly not even aware of his presence. Well, that was peace and quiet for him...

So, what would he do when he was bored? Gold asked himself. The first answer that came into his mind was just...thinking. He had done a lot of thinking lately and he admitted to himself, just thinking like this was sort of a fun way to pass the time.

He didn't have any activities to occupy himself for the rest of the day, which was at 3pm now. He couldn't possibly spend the rest of the day thinking, especially when he could use the time to spend time with Silver or something.

Thinking of which... Shouldn't he be hanging out with Silver now? Especially since there's only... 7 days left? Wow, only 7 days left... Time was passing by quick. Though come to think of it, wouldn't Silver feel a bit restricted if Gold was to hang out with him everyday? Especially since the guy was always one to spend time by himself. Gold really wanted to see him, though. But maybe it was for the better if he left him alone for a day...

His thoughts were cut off when he felt a tap on his shoulder. These thought interruptions were getting really annoying...

"Hi Gold!"

"...Oh, hey Crystal. Still hanging around?"

Crystal shrugged her shoulders. "I was on a break, didn't really have anything to do except calm myself and walk around, you know?"

"A...break?" Gold asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, um... I volunteer at the orphanage... Don't tell me you've forgotten, you numskull!"

"Oh... Oh yeah, haha, sorry," laughed Gold, slightly embarrassed. He'd nearly forgotten he was in Violet City. The city where the Bell Tower was, when him and Silver had that fight there...

"Hey, stop daydreaming okay?" shouted Crystal. "I know, I kind of interrupted your thinking earlier, and probably did again now, sorry for that."

"At least you apologised," said Gold humorously.

"Haha, yeah. Been interrupted before?"

"...yeah. Wasn't very pleasant."

"Oh, sorry then."

"You've already said sorry!" said Gold, grinning childishly.

"Heh, it doesn't matter, sorry though."

Gold shook his head in exasperation.

Crystal laughed for a bit before looking at Gold in the eyes, smiling. Gold suddenly felt insecure and looked away, afraid that his eyes would... well... cost him his friend's life. Crystal noticed this action and felt a sour twang in her heart, and her smile faded. Though she felt pretty mentally weak for thinking this, ...was she being... rejected?

She quickly revived from that moment of dejection and smiled again. "So, what are you gonna do now?"

"I don't know, actually," replied Gold, scratching his head.

"Well, maybe you could join me and see my mum? You haven't really met her yet, have you?"

"Eh, I don't think so..." said Gold. "Okay, I'll go with you." He needed something to do anyway.

"Cool! Okay, follow me..."

Gold walked with Crystal in the direction of her house.

"...I tell you, you better not take all of my mum's words seriously. First of all, she dresses up so exaggeratedly - she made me wear this outfit, you know - and she always wants me to dress up prettily and cutely but I'm not into that kind of stuff and she annoys me sometimes... But honestly, it's not that I hate my mum, she'd really helped me and taught me lots, and she is my mum, just that she's really a bit eccentric..."

Gold just listened blankly as Crystal continued to ramble on.

Finally approaching Crystal's house, Gold spotted an accessory-loaded woman leaving the house.

"Hi Mum..." greeted Crystal.

_Holy mother of- is that really Crystal's mum?_ thought Gold. _I thought maybe an older cousin or something!_

"Hi Crys!" shouted Crystal's mum excitedly. "Who's that with you?"

"Um, hey mum, meet Gold... He's a Johto Pokédex owner, like me. And he's from New Bark Town," Crystal introduced.

"Oh, that's not too far away, is it? Anyway, hi Gold! How are you doing?" said Crystal's mum, grinning widely.

"Eh, I'm fine, thanks..." replied Gold. _Woah, Crystal's personality contrasts a lot with her mum's..._

Crystal had been pulled to the side by her mum by now. Her mum spoke to her in a hushed tone. "Hey, your boyfriend is cute! I never thought you would have such good taste!"

"Eh?!" exclaimed Crystal in outrage. "No mum, he isn't my boyfriend! He's a FRIEND, no more no less... And about the good taste thing, no. Just no."

"Well, he _is_ a cute guy..."

Gold sweatdropped. It wasn't like he was deaf and couldn't hear a thing...

Crystal's mum cleared her throat, and spoke louder. "Anyways, I have to be going now, bye~"

"Ah, bye Crystal's mum..." said Gold.

"Bye," said Crystal.

As Crystal's mum started to bounce away, Gold turned to Crystal. "Your mum is something, huh..."

"Yeah, sorry about that. She's just so different from me... How did a person like her raise a kid like me, I wonder."

She sighed, and for a few seconds there was an awkward silence.

"Ur, hey, remember that time?" Gold brought up.

"Huh?"

"..._that_...time?"

"I don't get it... Come on, what's 'that'?"

"Um, that time I suddenly called you pretty and ran off..."

"...oh," said Crystal, suddenly a bit uncomfortable.

"About that, um, I'm sorry, as in you are pretty, but like that was really, really sudden... And really awkward. So just take it as I randomly complimented you, okay? Because you are pretty."

Crystal was a bit stunned by that. "T-thanks?"

"Welcome," replied Gold, smiling. Crystal couldn't help but smile back.

* * *

"Gold, Gold... GOLD, OVER HERE!"

Gold and Crystal turned to see Trinity running over with something in her hands. She stopped right in front of them, panting slightly. Gold smiled.

"Hello, Triny," he said cheerily, "Sorry I wasn't home that time..."

"Eh, no worries! It wouldn't be nice of me to interrupt you if you were occupied... This is Crystal with you, no?"

"Who are you?" asked Crystal, a bit suspicious. "How do you know my name?"

"She's a friend of mine," Gold spoke up immediately.

"A friend that old?" asked Crystal, squinting her eyes.

"Hey, don't call me old!" shouted Trinity in indignance. "Anyway, I'm just a family friend. Nothing that special. And about knowing your name, Crystal, you're a Pokédex Owner so you should know that you're pretty well-known... Especially for your hairstyle."

Crystal unawaringly flattened her ponytails.

"So anyway, Gold," Trinity continued, turning to him, "I need to pass this to you." She opened her palms to reveal a pendant: Some prism-shaped material on good quality string.

Gold looked at it confusedly. "So... Why are you giving this to me?"

"Uh..." Trinity looked at Crystal uncertainly. "Um, this is kind of private..."

"Oh okay, Crys, we're gonna move to the side for a while... Promise you don't eavesdrop okay?"

"...okay," said Crystal, still a bit suspicious of Trinity.

"Good," said Gold, bringing Trinity a fair distance away from the house.

"Okay Gold, I'm passing this pendant to you because I trust you will not lose it," said Trinity softly. "See, it's a really new prototype. I'll try to explain, take this for an example: You see, normally people like us, if we are being captured and held by bars or ropes, for example, we can just use our eyes to blast them, right?

"But there's this special extraterrestrial material called Demondium that we are strangely weak against, and it is immune to our powers so we can't destroy it, plus it is hard to break physically, even with diamond. It isn't very easy to bend, and the material is rare and expensive to find so it isn't that common. Yeah, it has the word demon in it, as if we really are demons. And if you think about it, we kind of are."

That touched a pretty raw nerve there for Gold.

"The problem is that there has been an invention of this new material to specially cut through, bend, or even render the Demondium useless by removing its power. It can also be controlled by eye power to move it without using your hands or feet. So the point of this invention is to make the production of Demondium weapons and traps easier. Unfortunately, it is the...how do you say..._bad_ side that invented it. It's a very new invention though, and it is relatively hard to make, so they only have a bit as the first prototype. I've stolen it," Trinity held out her hand "And it is now with me. I've decided to give it to you: you will need the protection. Those bad people are trying to kill you."

"Wha- why would they want to kill me? What did I do?" asked Gold, shocked from the sudden information.

"It's complicated," replied Trinity, "There's some kind of feud. Maybe I'll explain it another time. But I'm positive that you'll get into some kind of trouble sooner or later."

"Well, I was attacked just yesterday... Just came out of the hospital just now."

"Eh?!" Trinity cried out before being shushed by Gold and she lowered her voice volume. "What? Already?! How? Who? Why?"

"How am I supposed to know why?" asked Gold, "But well, it was kind of weird. It was suddenly in the Union Cave with Silver and Crystal when these Zubats and Golbats were flying at me but instead of flying at me it just went flying around me... I think it was meant as a mechanism to ward people off but it just avoided me... Then after that, someone approached me and attacked me with this blinding flash of some sort of energy and my eyes sort of attacked back, maybe instinctively or out of confusion, I'm not sure."

"Oh dear... I think they know you are one of us, Gold..."

Trinity took a deep breath.

"...All the more you need this to protect yourself!" she continued with gusto. "Come on, take the thing and wear it."

Gold took the pendant from Trinity's outstretched palm. Looking at her uncertainly, seeing as she nodded in confirmation, he put it on with much care, tucking it under his jacket.

"Yeah, we need to keep the object out of sight," said Trinity approvingly.

Gold smiled weakly.

"Alright, let me tell you how to use it: it's quite simple. You'll find that you can bend and meld into different shapes if you're controlling with your eyes. So, just cut the Demondium with this material across to separate it, it will be done very easily. Or just pierce through and leave there; it will lose its energy slowly."

"Okay," said Gold, smiling slightly with determination.

"Yay!" said Trinity, "Okay, moving on to a lighter subject... So, how was it being with _Silver_ in that _dark, dark_ cave?"

Gold realised what she was trying to say and cringed, delivering a not-so-light punch to her arm.

Crystal stared at Gold from afar. She really, really wanted to know what he and that woman were talking about, but she respected his privacy.

Watching as Gold's face crunched up into a cringe, her heart stopped and wrenched up, thinking that there was something wrong, but as he playfully punched the woman, she relaxed and her heart wrenched up again but in a different way.

No matter how annoying and blockheaded he could be, it's all okay, because it's him, and she really liked him the way he was.

_She really did like him..._

* * *

**(A/N)** So someone had PMed me, and apparently she/he has read my stories and, let's just call him he, said that I didn't seem to be serious in writing and I take a long, long time to update this story, and I felt so depressed at that. And I couldn't PM back...

I'm really sorry for not updating often, in fact, only once every month? Just that, at this point of time, time passes by very fast and I need time for stuff...

If it seems like I'm not serious, I've barely started posting, meaning I only posted a few. So, I'm not that good a writer. I'm actually still experimenting with the way I write things, and I guess posting the first few would help me see other's views? And I'm trying to post fairly good stories as well, and keeping it to one at a time.

I will start on a "serious" story after a few other stories? Not sure how long I would take, but I will post one soon.

Thanks for listening to my explanation *cough*ranting*cough*

Wahaha, see as more plot unfolds later on~

Oh, and... Peace! yes I remembered to sign off for once XD


	7. Chapter 6

**(A/N)** I AM BACK!

Guys, I'm sorry but I may take longer to do each chapter. Full of topsy turvy this period of time.

But don't worry! I'll still try for once a month. Just this time, it was hectic. Actually, now I've got more time on my hands so yay maybe once every 2 weeks? But don't keep your hopes up too much ^^"

Next chapter. Don't worry, we have some way to go...

* * *

"So you're saying that, other than you, there was _another_ one of us wandering around the cave? I told them to steer clear of the cave after they've finished..."

"No, that's not what I meant." replied the guy just beside him. "That mancer isn't part of our association. I think he may be from the other one."

"Another one of those darn demons... _Again_..." the older man groaned.

"It's not demons, it's 'mancers'!" the younger male roared. "Don't you dare use that word!"

"You don't have the right to shout at me, young man!" bellowed the older man. "And, when I said demons, I was referring to the other association in a derogative way, not the actual term 'demon'."

"Yeah... Sorry, you know how sensitive I am when it comes to associating these."

The older man grumbled. "One thing the other organisation is good at is that they don't freak out whenever they are called demons, unlike you and your other _friends_."

"Hey, it's not my fault that they don't care about customs and rules," the younger guy scowled. "At least we know etiquette and order."

"Yeah, yeah," dismissed the older man. "So where was I before... Oh yeah. Why didn't you stop that brat when he entered the territory?!"

"I tried to!" protested the younger guy. "But he was just so strong! I tried to blast him, he just turned away, and the force that his eyes exerted on the whole cave just resulted in a mass explosion and I got hurt quite badly."

"What will we do if you can't even fight against one of them?" said the older guy disdainfully. "Aren't you one of the strongest?"

"No- well, yes I am, but I don't recognise him. I think he may be a new one. After all, he does seem pretty young, maybe a respectedly-aged teenager."

"And how does that relate to me?"

"Because that is my-"

"I don't care! Don't complain to me. I want some alone time now. Goodbye."

"You just think I'm annoying and want me out."

"That's the same thing! Argh, why haven't I kicked you out already..."

"First of all, because I am crucial to your plan working. And second of all," the young guy headed towards the door, "I'm your precious son~"

"Argh, go away," the older man grumbled.

The younger guy snickered before heading out and closing the door behind him.

* * *

Gold was woken up by his Pokégear ringtone.

_Why am I suddenly the most popular person in the world..._ thought Gold. _Oh yeah, I remember, I have super eyes._ Yawning, he put the Pokégear to his ear.

"Hello? Who's this?" Gold asked, still drowsy.

"Hello, Gold," said the voice.

"Oh, Green," Gold replied, "What's up?"

"Not much, I just feel a bit uncomfortable from yesterday. Sorry if I confused you by suddenly approaching you, because I know I probably did."

"Yeah, you did, though I can relate to you, surprisingly. And you wouldn't tell me what awkward situation you had come out of."

There was an uncomfortable silence on the other end of the line.

"...Yeah, sorry for that... But I really don't feel comfortable telling you about it." said Green

"Nah, it's okay," replied Gold, "I seriously respect your decision if you don't want to tell me."

"Yeah okay, thanks."

"Wait, um... do you have time today, by any chance?" asked Gold hopefully.

"Not really... I have a gym battle with Silver later on, he asked me yesterday."

Gold perked up when he heard Silver's name. "In that case... See you at the gym!"

"Um, okay then, bye."

"Bye!"

Gold hung up. _That Silver! He had time to call Green and he didn't call me..._

* * *

Lying serenely on Totaro, Gold was enjoying the sky scenery above him when a Pigeotto suddenly flew into his view. "Meh," he grumbled.

Spontaneously, a thought came to his mind.

What if he was attacked again? He certainly didn't want to be caught unprepared this time. And what kind of attack could he use?

Gold tried to recall the time he created the explosion in the Union Cave and tried to recreate the feeling. Gradually but not slowly, power shooting out from his eyes, power from the surroundings rapidly merging in, until it hits a surface, and maybe until he stopped himself?

BOOM.

The Pigeotto that had annoyed Gold earlier had burst into explosions.

Gold continued staring in awe at his own work as the explosion ceased, revealing a comically blackened and wide eyed Pidgeotto.

Was there any other way he could use his ability? Laughing, he told Totaro to keep following the Pidgeotto if it tried to escape, and with a glint in his eyes he did as he was told.

After a bit of experimenting, Gold managed to fire energy balls at the Pidgeotto instead of simply sending out exploding energy. The poor creature managed to dodge quite a few of them, especially at the start, but as Gold's aiming became better, the Pidgeotto was repeatedly blasted again and again.

At one point, he was using his strange controlling effect on Pidgeotto and making it flap its wings unnaturally.

"Is that you, Gold?"

In frantic shock, he dropped his control on the Pidgeotto and turned around. It was a Xatu, and on that very Xatu was Crystal.

"Oh, HELLO, CRYSTAL!" he yelled with excessive volume, looking over to the Pidgeotto which was trying to fly far away as fast as it could, although it wasn't even that fast anymore thanks to Gold.

Feeling bad, he quickly ordered Totaro to chase after the Pidgeotto. Taking in the situation, the Pidgeotto became more frantic and tried to speed up, but Gold quickly grabbed it. He took a Moomoo milk from his bag and fed it to the Pokémon, who eventually saw that Gold wasn't trying to attack him with another of his energy blasts.

Crystal giggled at the amusing sight. Gold, seeing her reaction, smiled sheepishly.

"Don't think I purposely did it to embarrass myself in front of you," said Gold.

"Who said I did?" replied Crystal, earnestly and not sassily. "I thought that was cute."

"Why, thank you my dear Crys," he bowed with a dramatic air.

Crystal laughed in return. Smiling serenely, she admired the loving and, for some reason she didn't know, apologetic glint in his eyes while he set the Pidgeotto free, which now felt mixed feelings of fright, gratefulness and confusion as it flew away.

That was perfectly normal, right? Admiring him for that?

"Heheh," said Gold, "I kinda felt bad for the Pidgeotto... So yeah."

"Mm," mumbled Crystal.

Why should she even worry about admiring him? It wasn't much, really. Why was she getting her feelings worked up so early?

"Erm, whatcha thinking about, Crys?"

Crystal sat up straight and blushed immediately. "...um..."

"Nah, it's okay, I'm sorry if I poked into your privacy," said Gold, although gradually, as he thought about it, he started to smirk. "Though... Let me guess... _were you thinking of someone_?"

Crystal blushed a deeper shade of red.

"Aha!" Gold exclaimed. "Finally got something on you! Crys is in love~"

"Stop it, I mean it, it's not funny at all," Crystal said while scowlling, but still blushing.

"Who is it, huh? Who is it~"

"Shut up, why should I tell 'you'?"

"Good point," laughed Gold, while Xatu stared at Crystal as if to say 'You're in love? Why didn't you tell any of us?' Crystal was looking away though, getting conflicting feelings about Gold's reaction.

"Well, enough tomfoolery," Gold said, ('thought that day would never come for you', Crystal commented lightheartedly) "I need to meet Green and Silver at the Viridian Gym."

"Oh, okay..." said Crystal.

"Bye!" Gold quickly flew off to the distance without another word.

* * *

Gold came just in time to see Silver take down Green's Arcanine.

"Hello, people!" he greeted the two of them, yelling. "Hey, the battle's already ended? Why didn't you wait for me?"

"You didn't tell us to wait for you," Green replied, amused.

"Yeah, and I won," said Silver, his voice hinting immense joy. "I was training yesterday, by the way, so that I have a last self-evaluation session just before the battle."

"Something off your bucket list?" asked Gold, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah, pretty much."

Green looked at the two of them, slightly entertained yet confused by their conversation. "Here's your badge, by the way."

There was a glint in Silver's eyes as he received what was more than a piece of metal to him from Green's palm.

"Woohoo!" Gold cheered for Silver, and Silver smiled back at him.

"Hehe," Gold chuckled, "So, anything you want to do today?"

"Not really," replied Silver. "Actually, I don't know what to do for the rest of the day except training, really..."

"You could go to the new Pokérink," suggested Green. "I had always wanted to go there..."

"Let's go there then," Gold decided immediately. "Green, you can come along too."

"Okay," Green agreed, nodding.

"Should I invite Crys for the outing too?"

"Fine with me," said Silver.

"Perfectly okay," said Green.

"But wait! Can't we have it tomorrow? I'm quite tired after all that..." Silver suddenly cut in.

"What?!" shouted Gold, "But I just woke up!"

"Huh?!" Green exclaimed. "Its nearly 2! I called you at around 11... Weren't you awake then?"

"You woke me up with that call," said Gold, yawning afterwards.

"Why not we just train for the rest of today?" Silver suggested to Gold.

"Doesn't sound bad... Okay! Let's head off immediately!"

"Wait first, Gold, I need to heal my Pokemon..."

* * *

Gold didn't exactly pay attention when training his Pokemon, in fact, he was getting scolded by Silver all the time for slacking while his Pokemon did all the work.

He was just spending the time thinking to himself, really. Thinking about how in just 3 days, so much has already happened, and he felt sort of stressed too. Maybe it was because of him getting so worked up on Silver's... _deadline_ and wanting to rush over his last days... Which he had honestly not really thought about. Maybe he should relax a bit... And Silver would naturally open up to him?

He needed to think more, really. Not only has it become an enjoyable pastime but he started to see more...

When it came to a section when Silver was telling him about one of his tactics, he noticed something weird about himself. The training consisted of complicated patterns that got Gold easily angered and irritated by, and whenever that happened his eyes would spark with an energy, causing him to turn away from any person (or Pokemon) he was looking at. It was a quirky habit of himself that he found interesting... Gold was tempted to think up of the scenarios when it was good or bad. Dang, this thinking process is addictive...

All in all, without realising it, through a bit of struggle, instruct and just training together, they felt much closer and much happier than they did before this session.

* * *

Gold felt the chilly air-conditioner-generated breeze graze against his face inside the glass domes of the Pokérink.

"Man, this cost us a lot," complained Crystal with a sour face, but soon lightened up to a gentle smile. "I bet it'll be fun though."

"This place is really crowded," Silver remarked, looking at the queue of the ticket and rental booth. "Do you think we would even be able to move an inch?"

"Sure we can," said Green, "The ice rink is _huge_. Look," he pointed his finger towards the rink.

The rink was like he said, humongous, stretching from one end to the other, and Gold could barely see one end of the rink without effort.

The 4 of them were putting on their skates and gloves, Gold staying silent as the others chatted. He was feeling unusually peculiar. Quite suddenly, he lost his excitement and achieved that state of mind where his emotions shut down and was replaced with a tranquil, peaceful feeling. This happened a lot nowadays. It was unnerving, but he enjoyed these moments. It was kind of like meditation and was peacefully nice. Worrying, but peacefully nice.

Smiling in calmness, he looked around the ice rink. Pros were speeding around the ice, some twirling around in circles or performing stunts, some were simply gliding along swiftly with ease. People who just knew how to ice skate were having fun skating around the expanse of the ice rink, groups of friends male and female skating together; some of the amateurs holding to the railings for dear life, afraid that they would topple at any moment. Speaking of which, almost every second someone fell down onto the ice on their backs, laughing along with their friends. Families were there too, the parents guiding the unsteady children, all smiling happily. Some people were on the stands, either watching the skaters skate or resting from their skating sessions. There were crew skating along the area, watching out for kids, some of them who were skating with support from-

Suddenly, his skin went clammy, which wasn't natural given the cold surroundings. He felt emotions again, but not a good one: fear, absolute, pitch-black fear. His throat seemed clogged and it was like he couldn't speak at all.

"Guys," he finally got out, gulping, "What are those things that some of the children are holding?"

"Oh, the helpers?" asked Crystal. "Those are some cute little inventions to help learning kids. You hold onto the handles like they are doing and skate along, just with the helper's support. See, they made Piplup ones, the Spheals are meant for someone to sit on the helper, many types really; I personally feel that the Zigzagoon ones are so CUUUTE! No wonder they seem popular with the kids."

A scene flashed across his eyes, bringing him back to the grass where he found a Zigzagoon around... At that moment, it was truly beautiful. But...

"That's cool," said Green.

"T-that's... What's the word..._ Interesting_," said Gold, uneasily.

Why the hell was he so affected, anyway? All they were were Zigzagoons. FAKE, PLASTIC Zigzagoons, so why should he be scared? It's not like he would kill them if they're not even alive!

Gold looked up and saw the others already heading onto the ice.

Looking ahead and seeing the children gliding along with those plastic, big eyed Zigzagoons staring into his soul, he gulped again.

He hesitated just before stepping onto the ice.

"Look guys, I don't think I wanna skate anymore..." he said softly, looking down.

The others looked at him.

"Why not?" asked Crystal.

"You can't be scared of the ice, are you..." teased Green. "You were the one who was excited from the idea in the first place."

"Gold's a scaredy-cat~" taunted Silver.

"I'm not a scaredy-cat!" Gold spoke up, protesting. "And alright! I'll get onto the ice..."

What made it even more hilarious for the three watching was how Gold had slipped the moment he stepped onto the ice. They burst into laughing tears at the sight of Gold sprawled on the ice rink.

"It's not funny!" he roared, and they only laughed harder, "I was just so surprised the ice was so slippery..."

"Well, it is," Green pointed out. All was silent for a moment before the three burst into laughter again. Gold squinted spitefully at them.

Then, like a broken dam, he burst out laughing along with them. It felt like a relief, really, and it was all those good feelings suddenly pouring out of a locked chamber in his heart and pumped through his body.

"I'll help you up," volunteered Crystal, and with Green's and Silver's unnecessary butt-in Gold got up.

"Okay, it looks like you're having trouble with skating," noted Crystal. "And honestly, so am I. I've never skated before and I don't even dare to let go of the railings..."

"How about I guide Crystal and Silver guide Gold?" suggested Green.

"I don't need guidance," Gold cried out.

"But it won't be fun for you anyway without a partner," said Silver. "Come on, let's go."

"Good luck, Crystal!" yelled Gold. Crystal smiled back, a bit taken aback from how sudden it was.

"Okay, now just grab my hand," instructed Silver after they've skated a distance away, stretching out his hand towards Gold.

"Concern appreciated, Silver," said Gold, "but I really don't need help. I can skate by my own, you saw me."

"Yeah, I saw you fall," said Silver jokingly, "You were unstable. And your movements are a bit erred. Come on, it'll just be gliding along."

"While holding your hand."

"It's okay! We're guys! Nothing is happening," Silver reassured.

Gold thought about the first day when the man had talked to him about his apparently 'true love'.

"Argh, why am I even bothering so much about you..." muttered Silver, beginning to move his hand away.

Before he could, Gold quickly slapped his hand onto Silver's. "Okay, don't leave me alone. '_It isn't fun without a partner_', remember?"

Silver smirked and dragged Gold along.

Gold buried himself into his thoughts. Why had that sudden flashback driven him to follow Silver's orders even if he didn't want to? Since he was so appalled by it in the first place, why was the shock of the thought causing him to, instead of immediately disagreeing, immediately agreeing and carrying it out instead? What the hell was wrong with him?

Now that he had thought of it, holding Silver's hand was strangely comfortable...and horribly conspicuous. Gold was looking away, facing the ground, trying to shake the feeling off.

"Gold..."

Even through the cloth, he could feel Silver's life and warmth in clutched in between Gold's grasp. Maybe it was just the double layer of gloves but he really liked this warmth and didn't want to let go... not that he'd ever admit it. Gold's face flared up just thinking about it.

"Gold!"

Gold snapped back into reality and looked back at Silver.

"Try to actually move yourself!" panted Silver. "You're not the lightest load on Earth to drag, you know. Try to actually move your body weight forward."

"Well, you didn't need to drag me along the ice in the first place," retorted Gold.

"I was trying to be a good friend and help you," Silver sighed. "Okay, just skate as how you normally do."

Gold glanced at Silver before obeying and he started to skate, only to be halted by Silver again.

Gold nearly toppled forward from the inertia. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Your skating is a bit wrong. Just skate like you walk, but put more impact as you push ahead."

"Okay... Geez, was that really necessary..."

"Yes, you have to learn to skate properly," said Silver sternly.

"No, I meant... Did I really have to risk my life just to learn to ice-skate?"

Silver snorted, but not in a hostile way. "You won't die from falling onto the ice, you spoilt little child."

"Oh yeah? Who are you calling a spoilt little child? And besides, you could fall down in a way that you break your neck and your arteries and you just pass away injured."

Silver sighed, goodheartedly this time. Gold laughed right after.

"Hello Green and Crystal!" Gold yelled to them as he and Silver passed by. Crystal was severely caught off guard while she concentrating on her movements and fell, trying to hold on to Green for support but ended up dragging him down as well, and with an outcry they both smacked onto the ground.

Gold burst out laughing again instantaneously, skating away.

"That was mean," said Silver.

"What? All I did was say hi to Crystal!" said Gold with a cheeky tone.

"No, I mainly meant laughing at them like that, it's cruel."

"Hey, its just laughing-" Something bumped into Gold and he fell forward with a harsh impact and he felt as if his teeth were going to fall out. His body started to sting in pain.

"Serves you right," said Silver smugly.

"Oh- I'm so, so sorry, young man," apologised the relatively tall figure who had bumped into him.

He seemed to be somewhere in his 40s, his wrinkles not yet easily noticeable but they were starting to form, his facial expression weary but generally of a big build.

He apologised profusely. "I'm really sorry, I was trying to keep up with my son there... Come back here, Mark!"

The 10 year old boy skated up to his father, his facial expression the typical kid in trouble face.

"Urm... Sorry," he muttered.

"He's still learning, you see? I'm just afraid he would get hurt if he crashed into somewhere with that huge plastic helper... Looks like I'm the one who crashed into someone instead."

"It's... Okay..." said Gold. He tried to get himself up, but felt a sear through his wrists the moment he put pressure on them and fell back down.

Looking at the source of the pain, he realised there were serious gashes on his wrists that managed to get there in the position he fell. Sighing, he moved his hand around on his wrists, cringing from the pain of the movement afterwards.

Ignoring the pain this time, he tried to force himself to at least sit up. He managed to strain his neck upwards to smile at the man. He didn't want the man to think he was angry at him.

Of course he anticipated the Zigzagoon's eyes staring back at him as he looked up. Of course he'd braced himself. But as soon as his eyes made contact with the plastic Zigzagoon, his mind immediately brought up a picture; a pair of eyes as lifeless as the ones on the figure, staring without seeing. All because his body wanted more power... All because of his selfishness...

He dropped to the ice again, unable to move. This time, even Silver came into the scene to help Gold.

"Are you okay?" asked Silver.

Gold stayed silent, staring at Silver with no emotion.

"Here, let me help you up..." Silver slowly supported him, up till he could properly stand up.

"There. It seems like you got pretty badly injured on your wrists..."

"Oh, I'm so sorry for that!" the man apologised again.

"No, it's nothing, simple first aid treatment is sufficient... Hey, are you okay, Gold?"

"..." Gold kept silent, eyes blankly staring at the ground.

"...You okay?" asked the man.

"Oh!" shouted the young boy. "I recognise the guy you just ran down, daddy! He was a Pokéathlon athlete...won all 5 medals, and even beat Jet!" The boy turned to Gold. "My friend was talking about you for days!"

But even so, Gold was unnaturally quiet for one who'd brag once there was a chance to.

"'A Pokéathlon athlete?'" said the man in surprise, "That's even worse! I truly am sorry... But is he alright?"

"N-no," replied Silver. "I've never seen him act like this before..."

"...I kind of wanted his autograph but I guess this isn't the time for it, is it..."

The boy's father shook his head.

At this moment, Green and Crystal skated into the scene. "Hey, is everything alright?" asked Crystal.

Silver looked at Gold. "...something's wrong with him..."

"Bring him to the stands to rest," said Green.

"Okay Gold, come on..." Silver dragged Gold across the ice once again.

* * *

With a first aid kit in his hands, Silver ran towards Gold, who was seated on the stands.

"Kay, Imma treat the wound for you... since you won't even move yourself, you twat."

Gold stayed silent as Silver treated the wound, and only reacted the slightest by flinching as antiseptic was applied onto the gashes, and only for his right wrist. When it was applied to his left wrist, he seemed to be too deep in thought to even notice it.

When Silver began to bandage his wrists... he heard sobs coming from Gold.

"Gold, what's wrong?" Silver held his shoulders and turned him to see him face to face. Tears were flowing from his golden eyes, and as they made eye contact something sparked in those metallic amber eyes, and SIlver was immediately and coldly pushed away.

"Gold..."

"I killed a Zigzagoon, Silver."

Talk about straight to the point. Well, that explained everything...

"I can't ever forgive myself for killing it..."

Gold started to sob even harder.

"So you've always been haunted by this...?" asked Silver.

"I wouldn't say haunted but it's definitely been etched in my mind..."

It was Silver's turn to stay silent and Gold continued to sob.

"Gold... It wasn't your fault that the Zigzagoon died..."

"It was!" roared Gold. "It was in my hands, and it was because of me that it died!"

"But you didn't mean it..." said Silver.

"Actually if you look at it in a way... It was... And whether I meant it or not, it doesn't matter. I killed that Zigzagoon, there's no difference."

Silver sighed. "Gold. I'm very sure that you did not have any harmful intentions towards that Zigzagoon. Besides, its just a Zigzagoon! It isn't the end of the world-"

"And what do you know about killing a Pokemon? You may have stolen, tricked, fooled... But have you ever killed anyone before?"

Silver thought for a moment. "...No."

"Well I have!" yelled Gold angrily before slumping onto where he was seated. "Those murderers... They're either lunatics, desperate or raised from young like that or something..."

Gold took a deep breath. "You know something about murder? There may be someone you want to kill; imagine slaughtering him, ripping his heart out, and how you just want to do that to him in real life. But you see, the thing about murder is that no matter how much you want to and you wish to, when it comes to actually murdering someone; actually doing that in real life... You just can't. To kill without guilt takes courage and a hole where your heart is supposed to be...

"Some people kill Pokemon easily because they see them as nothing but mere tools. But I treat Pokemon as 'partners'... Even if they're wild..."

Gold pressed his head into his palms. "In the end, I killed one of my partners... I felt evil, Silver. I felt cruel, heartless. The Zigzagoon was innocent, he could've had a happy family for all I know... And I broke it..."

His voice was reduced to a whisper. "If I'd never been there, none of this would've happened."

Suddenly, Silver had pushed Gold with an unfriendly force, causing him to nearly topple over his seat. Gold sat up straight, staring at Silver outrageously. At this moment, Silver grabbed Gold by his shoulders, gripping them tight, but with a slightly saddened face.

"So you are saying that I'm a horrible person too..."

Gold widened his eyes in confusion.

Silver let out a few dry laughs. "Do you know who I am? I'm Silver, Giovanni's son. I'm the son of the huge mastermind behind Team Rocket... The organisation that caused it all..."

Silver stared back at Gold intently, who looked away immediately.

"I'm sure even you know why my father created that organisation in the first place... It was me. All the Pokemon that suffered and were under the control of, all the people that were affected by it, all the things done with a reason related to Team Rocket... It was because a little boy went missing. All that for him. And surprise, surprise...that boy was me. If I'd never been born, none of this would've happened. Everything is my fault."

"Don't say that about yourself!" said Gold, looking back at Silver. "It wasn't your fault... you can't control that you were born. It isn't fair to yourself..."

Silver chuckled to himself.

"Those were the words that I'm trying to drill into your head, Gold," laughed Silver. "You see? That incident isn't your fault. Put it behind you like I did."

"But I was the direct cause of its death..."

Silver shrugged. "_I_ was the direct cause of Team Rocket."

"You weren't there to experience it-"

"Gold!"

Silver was still gripping tightly onto Gold's shoulders but this time, smiling in a lighthearted way. Rarely did Gold ever see Silver with that expression- In fact, he couldn't remember any time when Silver had that expression at all.

"What I'm trying to say is: it's okay. What's done is done. Put it behind you."

Gold hung his head down.

"You're right."

Gold looked up to smile at Silver and he released his grip on his shoulders.

"Just curious," asked Silver, "but, is this incident linked in any way to why you seemed to have changed so much?"

"_Changed?_"

"Yeah. Me and Green were talking about it before the gym battle."

"Heh... I guess I have changed..."

"So? Is it?"

"Yes. Its actually one of the bigger reasons to why I reacted so badly. This thing is related to everything; including the suddenly being your best friend thing..."

"...um...care to tell me about it?"

Gold paused for a while and softened his voice. "You wouldn't believe me..."

Silver didn't know what to say.

"But believe me hundred percent that I really do want to be your best friend."

"So do I," Silver confessed. "I'm taking your word for it."

"Yeah, that's nice... It's actually pretty nice to know that after so many years - and not just a few years too, quite a number of years - in 3-4 days we became much, much closer than before. You have a piece of paper?"

"Sure..." He dug his hand into his pocket. "And you know what? I agree. Time had passed pretty fast, hasn't it? Sometimes a bit of forced icebreakers really does a good job." he fished out a reasonable size of paper. "Here you go."

Gold stared at it incredulously. "How does it come out so perfect and uncrumpled?"

Silver laughed. "The mysteries of my jacket..."

Gold took out a pen and began writing onto the paper.

"Whatcha doing?" asked Silver.

"Signing an autograph for the boy from just now."

Gold spotted the father-son pair from pretty nearby and skated towards them with the slip of paper in between his fingers.

"OH MY GOD! Thank you so much!" the boy exclaimed upon receiving it.

Seeing as the boy shouted with glee and Gold as he beamed back at the boy, Silver felt this weird sense of joy that he couldn't get out of his head even if he tried.

* * *

Crystal busied herself with gliding steadily across the ice. Luckily or unluckily enough of her, Gold just happened to be skating by.

"Hey Crys! Imagine the guy of your dreams holding you out, gliding along with you, kissing your neck..."

Crystal's whole body flushed red. "Gold! I'm going to _kill_ you..."

Green and Silver just happened to be trailing behind when Crystal looked so angry that she looked like a fanatic killer.

"Green! Save me from this mad woman on the loose!" cried Gold, crying tears while laughing.

"Woah, calm down, Crys..." said Green laughingly.

"I never knew you had a crush," said Silver.

"Silver! Not you too!"

"Okay okay, I think it would be safer if you Silver take Crystal away while I help Gold escape," said Green laughingly.

"Well, we would need a little swap of partner... Hi, Green!" yelled Gold enthusiastically, immediately dragging him away.

"...So, you have a crush?"

"Basically."

Silver raised his eyebrows. "Who is it?"

Crystal sighed. "It's Gold, the mindless buffoon."

"Didn't you say you didn't have any feelings for him that time?"

'Yeah, but... I kind of always have... and do you think I would shamelessly admit that in front of everyone that day?"

"There's nothing shameful about that."

"I'm not one who would would confess freely like that! Neither would you!"

"You have a point there... Don't worry, I'm not telling anyone about your crush."

"Okay, let's just continue skating..."

As Silver skated beside her for support, he glared at her when she wasn't looking. "You _lied_ that day..."

* * *

**(A/N)** Sorry for making a filler chapter so long to wait for. :(

So I've read something about mancers and mancy.

Many video games have used such terms like Pyromancers and Necromancers, and they commonly mean, like, Pyromancers summon fire and Necromancers raise the dead. Actually, summoning fire is called Pyrokinesis, and summoning the dead is called Necrokinesis.

In truth, Pyromancers and Necromancers, in their true meanings, do not mean summoning of fire or the dead. Mancy is referring to seek divination and prophecy through different means. Meaning, Pyromancers seek divination and prophecy through fire, and for Necromancers, the dead.

So when I used the word mancer, I kind of took this in mind. I mean, you kind of use your eyes being a mancer in this fic and it doesn't mean you summon retinas at your command... That would be a bit creepy o.O but you sort of seek information and the "prophecy" (death dates) through the eyes... Kind of trying to stick to the TRUE meaning of mancy but yeah, not really accurate either.

Anyway hope you have learnt something today! Lessons with Trina :)

Haha okay bye, peace •~•V


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